Chapter 112

—This is News 48, bringing you the week’s top stories.

—The ship carrying the Chinese Awakened Alliance departed Incheon Port for their home country earlier this afternoon. Du Fu-lin, the leader of the White Lotus Union known as the Blade King, described the summit as a meaningful meeting that significantly contributed to promoting friendship between Korea and China.

—Additionally, in an interview before his departure, he left a cryptic message, stating, “Once the monsters blanketing the continent are driven out and peace is achieved, I will return to meet you, my love.”

—Given that the delegation’s first stop upon visiting Korea was Mount Cheonsan, some speculate that the recipient of this message is a member of the Yoo family.

—In response, Seol Si-heon, the Chief of Staff of the 2nd Company of The Old Gods’ Wound, who recently returned to duty, strongly refuted these claims. He displayed a sharp reaction, warning that legal action would follow for those spreading false information.

—In other news, cubs of the Gargantua—which was annihilated in North Korea last summer—have been discovered near Mount Kumgang. The Ability Management Bureau has cordoned off the area and issued an emergency alert. Ha Yeri, Commander of Special Unit Division 2, is reportedly considering the deployment of tactical nukes as a precaution, though she maintained a cautious stance, stating that a final decision has yet to be made.

“I wonder, what exactly is love?”

“Pfft! What!?”

It was the weekend.

At my mumble while listening to the news, No Yeon-hwa nearly spat out the coffee she was drinking.

Sunday lunch was the day I went out to eat with just her.

It was a regular appointment that had lasted quite some time. After I had committed the atrocity of using the Tentacle of Suggestion on her during my promotion evaluation, I had agreed to this out of guilt, along with a 200,000 won “friendship fee.”

Beyond that, there were several rules to follow: “Always hold hands when walking the streets,” and “Compliment her outfit every single time.” According to her absolute Word-Spirit, these were things that “dining buddies” naturally did, so there was no room for doubt.

It had been several months since we started touring Seoul’s famous restaurants every weekend.

Today’s destination was an aquarium cafe.

While watching the delicious-looking, colorful fish floating in the tanks, No Yeon-hwa—who was wearing a skirt despite the cold weather—wore an expression that said the moment she’d been waiting for had finally arrived.

“You, say that again.”

“I mean love. Have you never done it before, Yeon-hwa?”

“Me? Of course I—wait, it’s not me, it’s someone else? Did… did you actually get a confession from someone?”

A confession?

Nothing like that had happened.

It was just that the words Shim Ha-yul said a while ago kept circling in my head.

The “love” I knew was definitely when I’d get caught stealing food from the fridge because I couldn’t stand the hunger. After being beaten for two hours by the director, he’d throw me some stale, rock-hard bread as if it were a grand favor—that was love.

Then, I’d take it to my childhood friend and give her half, only to be beaten again by the girl who was crying. That was love.

Apparently, the Thirteen Palaces of the Void had stripped away common sense along with gravity in Seoul.

I showed her the heart rate monitor built into my smartwatch.

“I’ve been recording my heart rate lately, and sometimes it spikes like this.”

“Let me see.”

No Yeon-hwa frowned as she scrolled through several days of heart rate graphs.

“Waking up at noon and eating lunch… this is because the cafeteria served Burge-Ria,¹ your favorite, that day.”

“Yes.”

“And then this is when you secretly posted the results of registering Commander Ha Yeri’s height as a Guinness World Record on the board…”

“That’s a secret. They’re still looking for the culprit.”

There were three other instances where my heart had throbbed violently.

One was when I finally pulled the essential “human rights” meta character <Apostle of the Outer God (EX)> in ‘New Monster Wars RE:VIVE!’.

My heart rate at that time was a whopping 140 bpm.

I still can’t forget the memory of jumping up and down on the bed with Mala-nim.

However, there was one value even higher than that.

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

“What the hell is this?”

No Yeon-hwa pointed at the time slot where I had hit 164 bpm.

It was when I had returned from vacation and was receiving the Star Scar from Yoo Se-byeol in her office.

It was a periodic reward that had become somewhat of a routine, but for some reason, the atmosphere between Yoo Se-byeol and me had been different than usual.

At the end of an act that had become increasingly escalated, I had accidentally ended up biting her ankle.

We were both so flustered that we practically fled the office.

This was why my contemplations had been so deep lately.

“Who were you with at this time? Fess up right now.”

“It was just a friend.”

“Which friend? Alexei? Or Kang Ha-neul?”

“A-Alexei.”

A lie popped out reflexively, but it didn’t work on the sharp-eyed No Yeon-hwa.

After using her Word-Spirit to find out I had been with Yoo Se-byeol, she immediately changed seats.

She moved right next to me and pressed the buttons on our smartwatches simultaneously to measure our current heart rates.

If there were a function to measure a ‘discomfort index,’ her smartwatch would have broken long ago from exceeding the limit.

“Mine is 156. Yours?”

“It’s 80.”

“…”

“Yeon-hwa?”

“…Again.”

This time, she measured the heart rate while gripping my hand.

I wondered where that strength came from in such a small frame; the five fingers she gripped were turning white like dried tentacles.

The result of that measurement was a mere 90 bpm.

“Why don’t you just die?”

“Gyahhh! Beta! My Beta!!”

As No Yeon-hwa’s fury erupted, the fish in the tanks began to die off en masse.

She had been swept away by her emotions, losing control over her Word-Spirit.

The command ‘Die’ was no different from forcibly flipping the master power switch of a living being. It was exceptionally effective in combat, but the collateral damage was the problem.

There were other customers in the cafe besides the fish in the aquarium. I had to soothe her emotions quickly before they started developing suicidal impulses.

She seemed desperately focused on getting a high score, so there was only one way.

I reached out under the table and slid my hand between her gathered legs.

“Eek!? You…!”

“Wait! Just a second!!”

The warmth of her thighs, encased in soft stockings, pressed against the front and back of my palm.

The subtle sheen of the 60-denier fabric—which gave the illusion of skin showing through—and the hidden fleece lining inside felt incredibly snug. When I pressed slightly with my fingertips, the firm presence of her flesh seeped in, making me feel as if I were wrapped in a warm blanket.

With her knees squeezed together in shock, her posture frozen, and her skin flushed a deep crimson beneath her loosened muffler, the measured value came out to a staggering 167.

It was exactly 3 points higher than when I bit Yoo Se-byeol’s ankle.

Of course, I couldn’t ignore the fact that fear and tension were factored in, but this was a sufficiently satisfying figure. I proudly showed her the smartwatch screen.

“With this, your score is even higher, Yeon-hwa. What do you think? Ow, ow! That hurts!”

“Die! Pervert! You d-d-idiot!”

Perhaps because her frantic punching wasn’t taking the form of coherent language, it no longer affected the surroundings. Instead, the people in the cafe whispered while looking at us with amused expressions.

Realizing once again that ‘love’ seemed to be a synonym for violence, I felt much more relieved.

On the other hand, No Yeon-hwa—looking as if her soul had departed—muttered with her head hung low.

“D-D-Do you really think I’ll let you off the hook with just this?”

“Pardon?”

“Y-Y-You better be prepared for next week…! If it doesn’t come out the same—no, even higher—I’ll seriously kill you.”

Don’t tell me she’s adding this to our routine along with the weekend meals?

Unfortunately, it was a promise that couldn’t be kept. I took a sip of the milk that had half-overflowed onto the table. The warmth from where I’d pulled my hand away from her thigh still lingered.

“Actually, there’s something I need to tell you.”

“What?”

“I’m going on a business trip to Busan starting next week. For an entire month.”

“What?”

I showed her the message that had arrived from the Red Tower this morning. It stated that a class I was leading had been scheduled for one of the seasonal semesters starting with the school break.

The last of the three events that caused my heart rate to spike was when I confirmed this message this morning. Cheon So-baek had kept the bet we made the last time I was in Busan.

“As for why it’s Busan, apparently the Red Tower is building a new tower there. It’ll be the first Magic Tower to be established in Busan. The professors and students are moving to a branch campus, and I’m being squeezed in with them… so I don’t think we can meet on the weekends for a while.”

“…”

“Yeon-hwa? Yeon-hwa…?”

Seoul Station was crowded with people again today. They were travelers heading to the nearby metropolitan area or Busan via train.

Since the Gyeongbu Line had become something of an ‘extreme attraction’ for Seoul citizens, the seats were graded in a new way.

Window seats, perfect for viewing the pillars of fire that intermittently erupted near Daegu, were Premium seats. Car 1, where passengers could watch the train plow through magical creatures loitering near the tracks, was the First-Class section.

Recently, courses where one could experience reduced gravity—an aftereffect of the Thirteen Palaces of the Void passing through—were also reportedly popular. Additionally, when using the night train, a 1.5x surcharge was added due to the risk of train robberies.

“It’s been a while. You look much better.”

“You seem well too, Mr. Robert. I’ll be in your care for the next month.”

The one who came to meet me was none other than Robert, the former Deputy Commander of the Firepower Support Unit.

He had returned to the Red Tower after Moon Ah-rin started being called the ‘Saint of Salvation’ following the joint reinforcement training. Since he had originally come to the Special Unit to assist Cheon So-baek, he didn’t seem to have any particular lingering regrets about the Deputy Commander position.

He looked at the numerous suitcases I had brought and spoke with surprise.

“You have quite a lot of luggage.”

“Yes, I ended up packing a bit of everything.”

The luggage I brought included almost everything from my dormitory. There was a Norkel figurine, cat food to distribute at the stray cat feeding stations in Busan, and some Thousand-Year Ginseng Liquor I had secretly harvested and brewed when I last went to Mount Cheonsan—a bribe for the ‘Iron-Blooded Leader,’ Grandma Park Mak-rye.

“Is the lady behind you part of your group? I’m sure we’ve met before.”

“Since you left the Special Unit early this year, you might not remember clearly. This is No Yeon-hwa, who was known as one of the ‘Wings of the Blue Sky’.”

“Aha, the Word-Spirit user… but why is she with you?”

“A few days ago at a cafe, she suddenly started making calls everywhere, saying she had a mission and had to go to Busan.”

The luggage was bulky in many ways, but if I had been going alone, it wouldn’t have been this much.

“Yeon-hwa? This is Robert, he was in the Firepower Support Unit…”

“Shut up. Just get on already.”

Half of the luggage belonged to the woman averting her gaze with her hands in her pockets: No Yeon-hwa.