Chapter 16
31st among all second-years. It wasn't a bad rank, even if it applied only to the ranking match, but naturally, it was nowhere near the protagonists of the original.
The original's characters─. The male and female leads in particular were usually ranked somewhere around the top ten.
Seo Ahyeon wouldn't have accepted my proposal, so confidently assuming victory as though it were a foregone conclusion, for no reason.
She must have had grounds for that confidence, which was why she agreed even to conditions that seemed somewhat unfair.
But there was one thing Seo Ahyeon didn't know.
‘This body's natural talent is better than I expected.’
Though it was a future that would never come to pass now, Han Taeyang of the original, who had violated the heroines in all sorts of ways, had actually been quite formidable as an Awakener, too.
Did that guy always use peaceful methods while NTRing the heroines?
Sometimes, Han Taeyang had even committed crimes without batting an eye and fucked the heroines.
For example, he might subdue them by force, abduct them to a hideout where no one else could find them, and sexually condition them until they completely submitted to him. Things like that.
‘That guy really was a thoroughgoing lunatic.’
It was a future that would never happen now that I inhabited this body—a possibility that had disappeared entirely.
My preamble had gone on a little long, but the point was simple.
Han Taeyang—or rather, this body that now belonged to me—was indeed quite strong, even within the academy.
Since I hadn't shown it until now, Seo Ahyeon must have felt as if she'd been struck by a bolt from the blue.
In fact, she had worn a dazed expression all the way until she left the stadium after the ranking match.
Her eyes held a complicated look, as though she had a lot on her mind.
“Hey.”
“Uh, huh?”
The fact that she raised her head half a beat late when I called her already made her thoughts painfully obvious.
Wanting to ease her tension, I let out a light chuckle and spoke.
“Why are you making such a serious face? You can lose once in a while. That's just life.”
“……”
“What, did you think you were going to win forever? Snap out of it. You're not Baek Seol-ah…….”
You can lose once in a while in life. The only student at Cheongwoon Academy to whom that obvious truth did not apply was Baek Seol-ah.
With a famous S-rank Awakener for a parent and overwhelming mana affinity, she was a monster who had not allowed herself a single defeat throughout both semesters of her first year.
In other words, that's what you called a genius.
Unfortunately, Seo Ahyeon wasn't at that level.
I lightly punched Seo Ahyeon's shoulder, which looked as though it had drooped a little, and added.
“Or maybe you were just in particularly poor condition today. That could happen too, couldn't it? So instead of looking so depressed, just…….”
“……Han Taeyang.”
“Huh?”
And before I could finish, Seo Ahyeon cut me off with a sudden ‘jab.’
She fixed me with a doubtful look and asked bluntly.
“Were you hiding your strength all this time?”
“……”
I was in the middle of withdrawing the fist I'd extended to tap her shoulder when I stopped awkwardly.
That brief silence probably added even more certainty to Seo Ahyeon's suspicions.
When I remained awkwardly silent, Seo Ahyeon muttered in a tone tinged with faint admiration.
“……Yeah, I knew it. It doesn't seem rationally possible to achieve that much growth in such a short time, and the most reasonable explanation is that you were only putting in a moderate effort all along.”
“Hmm…….”
“Don't bother lying. I'm not stupid enough to miss something like that.”
She then let out a low, heavy sigh, preemptively cutting off even the excuse I might have offered.
I stood there awkwardly and only then returned the hand that had touched her shoulder to my side.
I'd been trying to steer things toward the idea that Seo Ahyeon was simply in poor condition today.
‘Maybe that was forcing it.’
Seo Ahyeon had probably realized it herself through direct experience: the result of this spar couldn't be explained merely by one side being in poor condition.
Physical-type Awakeners generally have good instincts. Besides, it's not as though I'd held back.
Given my change of heart, I'd used one hundred percent of my strength in today's ranking match.
No matter how you looked at it, I couldn't afford to take it easy if I wanted to trounce Seo Ahyeon.
That was the only consequence: Seo Ahyeon had realized I'd been hiding my abilities until now.
It wasn't a major problem.
There had been a reason I'd finally revealed what I'd hidden for a year so readily. I scratched my cheek and turned my head away.
‘Honestly, I don't need to be cautious anymore.’
The reason I'd kept my true abilities completely hidden until now was, naturally, related to the original; it wasn't as though a belated case of chuunibyou had struck me.
As I said before, Han Taeyang's talent was exceptional, and it had been quite some time since that talent had blossomed.
And in the original, Han Taeyang had put that talent to full use satisfying his desires.
One example was abducting and confining heroines.
‘……Ryu Chae-eun.’
The scene where he locked up another heroine besides Baek Seol-ah and Seo Ahyeon in a secret hideout and sexually conditioned her had been deeply shocking.
Thanks to that, I'd developed an almost excessive tolerance for intense NTR stories.
Back in the early days after possessing this body, I couldn't easily control the remnants of Han Taeyang's instincts lingering within it.
When I first used Han Taeyang's power and realized its extent, I immediately made up my mind.
I would seal this power away before I inevitably ended up capturing and imprisoning an innocent girl as he had in the original.
I wasn't attached to top-tier rankings or grades anyway, so giving up had been easy.
Thanks to that, I'd even succeeded in suppressing Han Taeyang's instincts almost perfectly for an entire year.
Now, I was no longer swayed by the original owner's instincts.
Moreover, that instinct had quieted down in a strangely remarkable way after I had sex with Baek Seol-ah.
My vague guess was that it had quieted because I'd fucked her enough to satisfy those lingering remnants of consciousness.
In any case, that meant I no longer had any reason to hesitate to use my power out of fear of being consumed by it.
In fact, even though I'd run wild against Seo Ahyeon today, there had been virtually no disturbance in either my mind or body.
I smiled bitterly as I looked at Seo Ahyeon, who was staring intently at me.
“I didn't mean to deceive you, but I can't explain everything in detail. I have my own circumstances. It just ended up that way.”
Whatever my circumstances, there was no reason to lay them all out in detail.
I merely gave her a short, concise answer, and she nodded without any particular objection.
“Yeah……. In any case, now that things have turned out this way, I suppose I've lost the wager with no room for argument.”
“I suppose so.”
“Why are you saying it like this has nothing to do with you?”
Soon, Seo Ahyeon narrowed her eyes at my soulless agreement and stopped in her tracks.
Since the ranking match was over, there was nothing left on the schedule. That applied equally to both me and Seo Ahyeon.
That's why Seo Ahyeon watched me uncomfortably for a moment, as if she wanted to continue talking, then said.
“……A promise is a promise. I have no intention of taking back what I've said……. I won't.”
She hugged one arm with the other, shrinking back slightly as she averted her gaze.
Since she'd accepted the wager of her own free will, she was saying that she would definitely pay the price.
“I see.”
I gave a detached nod in response to her words.
Then came a brief, ambiguous silence.
Seo Ahyeon and I stood in the middle of a school hallway that had fallen unusually quiet with the ranking match in progress, staring at each other without a word for some time.
“……What, why aren't you saying anything? I said you could give me any one command, as promised.”
The first to cave to the pressure and speak in a small voice was Seo Ahyeon.
“Hmm.”
I fell into thought for a moment, letting out a short, unconscious hum.
A command for Seo Ahyeon, huh.
It was undoubtedly a rare opportunity. Perhaps a valuable chance that would never come again.
As my thoughts grew deeper, my gaze dutifully swept over her from head to toe.
Her breasts were certainly smaller than Baek Seol-ah's, but her hips and thighs had an unmistakable presence.
Her figure had clearly defined strengths and weaknesses. Either way, it was alluring.
“What is it? Why are you looking at me with that lecherous gaze……?”
“No, nothing.”
Before long, Seo Ahyeon realized that I was looking at her as though appraising her body and hurriedly gave the hem of her skirt a ‘firm’ downward press with both hands.
Did she know that soft flesh peeked out in subtle folds behind that prim school-uniform skirt?
‘……It really is a shame.’
Well, she had the kind of looks that made you marvel despite yourself—as befitted a heroine in a novel.
I raised my eyes to meet Seo Ahyeon's gaze; she looked as though she was having some decidedly unwholesome thoughts.
The end of her moderately curled side ponytail swayed over her shoulder, and Seo Ahyeon growled with a deliberately frightened expression.
“Y-Youuu……. If you're thinking of giving me some obscene command, I swear I won't let you…….”
“Shut up.”
Whack!
“……Ngh?!”
I lightly swung the edge of my hand as though handling a Yorkshire terrier that had dared to snap at its owner.
After taking the blow squarely to the crown of her head, Seo Ahyeon clutched her head with a pained expression.
“Seo Ahyeon, you.”
Her concern proved unfounded; I hadn't been planning to give her a particularly sexual command, so I spoke indifferently.
When I proposed the wager based on the ranking-match results, I honestly hadn't given much thought to what command I'd issue, but……
Now that things had turned out this way, I might as well use it once as I intended.
I turned toward Seo Ahyeon, who frowned with a few tears in her eyes, and said.
“How about you break up?”
“……”
“With Kim Minjun.”
Using the right to issue a command as an excuse, I finally said aloud what I'd wanted to tell her all along.
‘Wow.’
And the effect was remarkable.
Seo Ahyeon froze completely for an instant, then lifted her head and stared at me with eyes terrifyingly devoid of life.
……It felt as though killing intent were oozing from her. She could stab a person to death with that gaze alone.