Chapter 21: Omen(1)

“I’m, I’m sorry! Please, just spare me once! I don’t want to get hit anymore…”

It took several minutes for the succubus user to wake up, and her first words were a plea, covered in sobs, making them barely understandable.

“Hwaaa…”

She was crying so intensely that it was the first time I’d ever seen someone cry so sorrowfully. Seeing her crying like that, even Yejin seemed to feel sorry, and she approached her, patted her shoulder, and whispered something.

–Hey, shut up.

–Hieeek!

I don’t know what kind of comforting words she heard, but seeing the succubus stop crying so quickly, Winter praised Yejin.

“Good job. But what did you whisper?”

“I just said I was sorry for hitting her.”

“It was just self-defense, but Yejin is so kind.”

‘Self-defense my a*s…!’

Glaring at Winter, who didn’t know the full story, the succubus user, Hyewon, recalled the experience she just had.

–Hey, wake up.

Hyewon woke up with a start, startled by the rough sensation of being slapped on the cheek. She wished that the memory of fighting that crazy b*tch was just a dream, but as always, reality betrayed her expectations.

The first thing she experienced after opening her eyes was pain in her abdomen.

–Aaaagh!

As if not caring at all about her shriek, the other person’s kicking continued. It was no wonder that the fighter was called a weapon, as her leg, relentlessly targeting one area, was hateful.

After that, it was just a series of painful situations.

–Cough!

Every time she tried to cast a spell to escape this situation, she was kicked in the stomach.

The pain disrupted the concentration needed to use skills, and eventually, the mana gathered to use magic skills would fail to form a magic circle and scatter.

Soon, Hyewon gave up resisting. She had been hit in the stomach so many times that she had no strength left in her body.

–Ah, ah…

She blushed at the warm sensation between her legs. Yejin, regretting not drinking less water, asked Hyewon a question.

“You finally pissed yourself. I told you to give up on using skills. Are you going to resist more?”

“I, I won’t resist anymore… so please don’t hit me. Or, at least, hit me a little softer…”

Dragging her wet legs, she grabbed her clothes and begged, and the punching and kicking towards her stomach subsided slightly.

–[Squeak…]

–[Scary… I’ve never seen a human like that.]

The emotions of the summons scattered around her were felt through the shared senses with the summons. Some were whimpering in pain, and others were in a panic from the fear they felt towards Yejin.

Hyewon shed tears at the vortex of negative emotions they were feeling.

Each of the summons she had called as a shield had their own ego.

Suddenly, she felt sorry for the summons she had treated as mere meat shields. They were suffering because they had met such a useless owner.

To alleviate the fear they were feeling, Hyewon bowed her head deeply to Yejin and pleaded.

“Please don’t touch the other kids… You can do whatever you want to me…”

Yejin smiled and replied.

“I’ve been waiting for those words.”

She began to untie her clothes.

Enduring the curious gazes of the summons around her, Hyewon closed her eyes tightly. She didn’t want to imagine what was going to happen next.

…That was the story of ‘just now’.

“Hey, you’re not deliberately bullying her, are you?”

“Eii, no way. Oppa, you know how kind I am, right?”

“Kind my a*s.”

Winter chuckled as he replied, but there were no real clues, and there was no reason for Yejin to bully this user, so he let it go.

“Still, she trembles all over whenever she sees you. Does she have some bad memories or something?”

“No way. I’m seeing her for the first time today.”

The look in her eyes as she smiled over here was filled with murderous intent. Hyewon inwardly seethed at the murderous intent that implied, ‘If you reveal what happened just now, I’ll kill you’.

‘She did all sorts of things so openly, and now she’s trying to pass it off as self-defense because it wasn’t caught inside the barrier?’

Hyewon glared at Yejin and her two companions, but soon lowered her gaze at Yejin’s glare. It was even more humiliating because she had never done this since awakening her status window.

“Should we start with the reverse summon? It’s hard to take care of all the summons.”

“You know that’s the same as telling a summoner to disarm, right, Oppa?”

Winter looked at Hyewon. She looked pitiful with her head down and tear stains on her face, but in the end, she was the assailant who attacked Yejin first.

So, there was no need to treat her kindly.

“We can kill the summons ourselves. They can’t resist in their current state anyway, so a few wide-area spells will take their heads off.”

The summons were all stunned by Yerim’s neck slice. They weren’t even conscious, so they couldn’t avoid the skills, and it was actually easier to just kill them.

Due to the nature of the Summoner job, if all the summons died, she would be incapacitated for a while until she re-contracted.

“I’ll reverse summon them right away!”

As expected, she didn’t want the summons to die, so she started casting the reverse summon spell with a start.

Before long, all the summons disappeared into the dimensional gate, and only four people remained on the barricaded street. Now it was time to ask the most important question.

“Okay, now it’s your turn, Yejin.”

As Winter nodded, Yejin cracked her knuckles and approached.

“Tell me why you attacked us.”

“Hieeek! I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you!”

Answering as if having a seizure, bursting into tears again, Hyewon rubbed her hands together as if begging for mercy and opened her mouth.

“I, I mean… I came from a user group called [Hell Korea]…”

“Ah, that guild? I’ve heard of it.”

When Yerim pretended to know, everyone’s eyes turned to her.

“It’s a guild made up of the most hostile and extreme people towards ordinary people among the user communities. The people who are notorious in Busan are all from that guild. I heard that they reunited and are acting as a kind of group after awakening their status windows.”

“That’s right. And in my case, I was dispatched to inflict damage not only in the provinces but also in the metropolitan area… I happened to meet Yejin…”

“You were subdued?”

She bowed her head and nodded.

“If it’s revealed that I’ve been subdued, all three of you will become the main enemies of our guild. So, if you release me right now, I’ll talk to the guild and make sure there are no retaliatory measures.”

At the warning, Yerim rested her chin on Winter’s head and asked.

“If we let you go like this, you won’t invade this area?”

“That’s… because it’s one of the places with the largest city in the country. It also has a large population, and it’s in an ambiguous location to be considered completely in the metropolitan area, so it’s difficult for the military to come.”

“So it’s a perfect target to attack?”

“Yes…”

“Then, whether we release you or not, those guild guys will make a mess around here.”

When Yerim summarized her story in one sentence, Hyewon was silent as if she had nothing to say.

“Then I can’t let you go. My acquaintances all live around here. If they attack this place, we’ll lose our homes or our acquaintances will get hurt. Releasing you here would be like giving strength to a hostile group.”

“…I’ll try to talk to them… so they don’t attack this area…”

“I can’t believe you when you talk in such an unsure tone.”

Cutting off Hyewon’s words decisively, Winter cast various debuff spells.

<Intermediate Magic: Irregular Pulse> <Intermediate Magic: Limit Order>

The mana Winter drew out was absorbed into Hyewon’s body. <Irregular Pulse>, which restricts the blood flow that sends mana throughout the body, and <Limit Order>, which lowers the mana usage limit. Both were very fatal skills for a mage character.

However, they had the disadvantage of being very difficult to hit at close range and taking a long time to cast… but that was a meaningless disadvantage in a situation where the opponent was subdued like this.

“You won’t be able to use magic skills properly until I release the magic or another mage user touches you. It’s a little unsettling to release you right now, so let’s keep you for now. The guys in that extreme guild won’t know where she disappeared to right away.”

“Then who’s going to take care of her? We all live in different houses. It’s a bit much to tie her up in an abandoned house…”

“Wouldn’t Yejin be better? Yejin’s house is the widest and biggest. Right?”

“…Huh?”

The answer to Winter’s question came unexpectedly not from Yejin, but from Hyewon.

“C-Can’t I stay at Winter’s house…?”

“Why? It’s hard to say this, but my house is small and I have personal circumstances. It’s a bit difficult to live with a woman, especially a succubus user…”

As Winter scratched his face and explained the situation, Yejin sent an unknown gaze and agreed. Noticing her gaze, Hyewon trembled and started bowing to Winter, begging.

“It’s, it’s okay! You can do whatever you want, so please take me! I’m good at housework, I’m polite, and I have a quiet sleeping habit! Please…”

“Ah, I get it, so let go of this!”

At the end of Hyewon’s tearful clinging, Winter ended up taking responsibility for Hyewon’s identity.

“Then I’ll go first. Normally, we would have parted ways right after the meal, but it’s already too late.”

They had clearly eaten lunch in broad daylight, but the sky was already darkening. Even considering that it was winter when the sun sets quickly, about three or four hours had passed.

He had to go home and catch up on the webtoons or broadcasts he had missed, but he had wasted too much time.

Having quickly prepared to move, Winter cast the <Flight> magic and flew up with Hyewon.

“I’ll come to play next time, Oppa.”

“Hieeek!”

…Somehow, Yejin’s last farewell felt a little chilling, but he decided not to pay attention to it.

“Okay, everyone be careful, and contact me if you have any trouble.”

“Yes, Oppa. See you next time!”

“Contact me when you get home, Oppa.”

After waving their hands a few times, Winter adjusted his magic power and increased his speed. Flying quickly, passing through high-rise buildings with <Blink> when they blocked his path, it was soon to his house.