Ch.339Side Story: The Master’s Teachings

“Come in now.”

Stella, who had come outside after settling the commotion in the house, welcomes me with a smile.

Since I was already putting the items from the cart into the storage, I responded indifferently that I understood.

“What did you do with Hannibal?”

“I tied him up near the garden for now.”

“I’ll take care of him. Please go inside.”

“Hmm?”

Stella suddenly told me to go inside and left. I felt a bit uneasy about leaving the storage organization unfinished, but just then Findenai approached.

“I’ll take care of the storage, so go talk with your fiancée.”

“…What did you say?”

I asked again, wondering if I heard correctly, and Findenai frowned and jerked her chin toward the house.

“She came to see you, didn’t she? Did you think I was going to forcibly restrain you or something?”

“…”

I silently stared at Findenai. Considering her recent behavior, I thought she might actually do that.

Clearly displeased with my reaction, Findenai brushed her bangs back and sighed.

“Is that your preference? Want to get locked in the storage once?”

“Why are you so angry?”

When I worriedly asked the grumbling Findenai, she frowned and answered.

“You have no idea how shitty it feels when the man who woke up next to me this morning goes off to embrace another woman.”

“…”

“Ah, fuck. They say if you love someone, you lose.”

Saying that, Findenai started organizing the storage in my place. Looking at her back, I felt both bitterness and a heaviness in my chest.

I clearly felt that I was doing something terrible.

‘…’

Though she pretended to be fine, Findenai occasionally showed this kind of intense jealousy. It hadn’t manifested in her actions yet, but it certainly came through in her sharp words.

“This is difficult.”

If I were to say I’d choose just one person, they would refuse out of fear of being abandoned.

But I felt that the current relationship, where reason and emotion were mixed, was clearly wrong.

When I entered the room, Erika was waiting nervously. Since I had connected her academy room to this place through the general store’s door, she could visit anytime.

Her appearance was no different from usual, but…

Was she still wearing that revealing underwear that Findenai and the Dark Spiritmaster had mentioned earlier? I momentarily wondered what she was wearing under her thick shirt and pants.

I have no idea how they came to know about such things.

“I came during lunch, but they said you went to town, so I came back.”

It was now 5 PM. Time to prepare dinner.

“That’s good. Findenai was lonely eating breakfast alone.”

There was only one chair, but we could bring one from Erika’s room.

“Yes, I came to have dinner together. I also wanted to see your face.”

“…”

Her voice was strangely moist, and it wasn’t just because the sunset made everything feel more emotional.

Just like Findenai earlier.

Erika too was exerting her own will.

It made her sad that I spent time with others, but she didn’t try to stop it.

The sadness in her voice was in the same vein as Findenai’s irritation earlier. People just express it differently.

“Erika…”

As I cautiously approached, Erika instead embraced me as if she couldn’t hold back anymore.

With her hands around my waist and her face buried in my chest, she murmured with a slightly trembling voice.

“It’s fine. This is enough for me.”

“…”

“Because you’re here. Because you’re in front of me right now. That’s all I need.”

After a brief silence, Erika abruptly let go and turned toward the general store door as if escaping.

“I’ll just go to my room for a moment.”

There was something I wanted to say, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it. Erika slipped into the general store.

I stared blankly at the closed door, but it didn’t open for a while.

“…”

I had nothing to say.

Even if I said I would make a choice, they would ask me not to choose because it would hurt them.

But leaving things as they are means everyone’s hearts are slowly being eaten away by jealousy.

Additionally.

I too wasn’t comfortable with this situation.

If only I could become a greedy person who surrenders to instinct and embraces them all.

Perhaps I could feel a little more at ease.

But I could never, ever become such a person.

* * *

“There was no talk about hugging.”

At the dinner table in the house sitting alone on Bolt Hill, Erika, Findenai, and Stella were chatting together.

Findenai and Erika, who had just been stirring up various conflicts over Shinwoo Kim, surprisingly seemed to get along well.

With a fork in her mouth, Erika’s cheeks turned red as she defended herself.

“Well, you were bragging about waking up with him this morning, so I got a little jealous…”

“Hmph. How adorably jealous. Makes me want to tear you apart. But you brought sausages, so I’ll let it slide.”

Findenai was enjoying a satisfying meal with the sausages Erika had brought to complement Stella’s mostly vegetarian table.

Standing beside them and listening to the conversation, Stella sighed.

“Anyway, both of you did well. He needs a little more pressure.”

“…”

“…”

Both Findenai and Erika looked at Stella simultaneously. Various emotions were felt, but they had to see this plan through to the end.

“To be honest, I don’t feel good about this.”

Holding a mug, Erika muttered bitterly, and Findenai also rested her chin on her hand while nervously tearing at a sausage.

“You’re right. It sucks that he’s stressed because of me.”

“I know.”

Stella’s expression darkened for a moment. But she couldn’t give up on this plan.

“But this kind of life can’t continue forever, can it?”

It was none other than Stella who first recognized Shinwoo Kim rather than Deus Verdi, and who claimed to understand him.

She knew him too well.

Given his personality, he might endure this life for now, but eventually he would break somewhere and make a choice.

Because he was a man who even hated the idea that he could love multiple women.

It was the natural progression.

“If he makes a decision, it’s too late. The answer he comes up with after much deliberation will surely be the right one, and he won’t change it.”

Because while he held others to strict standards, he actually held himself to even higher ones.

Once Shinwoo Kim provides an answer, no one can change it. That’s the kind of man he was.

“We need to keep pushing. So he can’t choose anyone. We need to keep showing him how we change, how much we suffer when he’s gone.”

“Haah.”

“Fuck.”

They understood what she meant.

They understood, but…

They didn’t like it.

Stella also knew that what she was doing was wrong. She knew she was using themselves as hostages to keep pressuring Shinwoo Kim, but…

Squeeze.

The woman who had been a Saintess.

She was walking through the mud, having abandoned that name and even her sanctity.

“I can never give him up.”

At Stella’s unwavering declaration, Findenai and Erika finally took a step back.

As she said, if Shinwoo Kim made a choice, they wouldn’t even have times like this.

Make him delay his choice, postpone it, make him agonize over it.

“And then suddenly, at some point… there will come a time when he finally can’t choose.”

Then.

When that time comes.

Stella took a deep breath and sincerely looked forward to that day, but…

The great demon inside Stella had a somewhat skeptical reaction.

Why?

It felt like she could already see Stella getting caught in the middle and being thoroughly chastised.

But Vellica didn’t say anything. Stella had a rather blind side to her.

When she was alive, she was blind to God, and when she was dying, she was blind to demons.

After death, she was blind to love.

She needed to learn through experience, even if it hurt a little.

“By the way…”

Findenai, resting her chin on her hand, looked around and asked.

“Where did the redhead go?”

* * *

While Findenai and Erika were having dinner, I had come into the nearby forest for a walk, unable to face both of them at once.

‘Did I come too deep?’

In the forest where only insect sounds could be heard. One of the downsides of being in a prosthetic body was that I couldn’t breathe fresh air in places like this.

Every time this happened, I felt bad because it seemed like I was just living on a simple backdrop.

“Hoo.”

As a result, my already complicated thoughts became even more tangled with self-blame.

That’s when.

“What’s wrong?”

A voice coming from between the trees. Purple eyes glowing softly in the darkness.

“Dark Spiritmaster?”

I wondered why she was here so suddenly, but the Dark Spiritmaster approached with a flutter, unlike her usual gentle demeanor.

Like the old days.

That is, she reminded me of when we first met.

I knew she acted like her old self when I wasn’t around, but this was the first time she showed this reaction to me.

“You seem troubled.”

“…”

It was lamentable that I couldn’t readily deny it.

The Dark Spiritmaster approached much closer than usual and whispered.

“It’s because of the others, isn’t it?”

“You have unusually good intuition.”

I frowned and warned her not to continue, but the Dark Spiritmaster had already come very close to me.

A distance where our noses almost touched. Her voluptuous chest pressed against mine.

She had intentionally used magic to make her body tangible.

It meant the Dark Spiritmaster was also determined.

“It’s because of your own inadequacies, isn’t it? You can neither choose someone nor not choose, but what you can offer is limited.”

“…”

Her words pierced sharply, but her voice was soft. A feeling of being warmly embraced.

“You can’t give them physical pleasure like others do, nor can you have children and build a family. You have to remain, so eventually they will age, close their eyes, and enter eternal rest.”

The Dark Spiritmaster gently reached out and wrapped her hands around my neck. She looked up at me while clinging to me.

“But there’s someone who doesn’t need to worry about such things.”

“The answer is obvious.”

I tried to regain my composure, but the Dark Spiritmaster nodded with a small smile.

“I am a spirit and your monitor, so I must stay with you forever. Besides, I can’t have children anyway, but…”

The Dark Spiritmaster’s hand gently slid up to my cheek. Her touch felt cold, but strangely, it wasn’t unpleasant.

“We can share pleasure.”

I know.

I had already seen Stella’s reaction through Vellica, and self-proclaimed god of pleasure Bellas had told me about having relationships with various women as a mental entity.

I was just pretending not to know.

The Dark Spiritmaster’s hand moved down and grabbed my wrist, pulling it back sharply.

My hand landed on her soft buttocks, and I unconsciously gripped it.

“Mmm.”

The Dark Spiritmaster smiled seductively and let out a slight moan.

“Dark Spiritmaster.”

I tried to push her away, but she kept pressing her body against mine and whispered.

“Lemegeton, Black Magic, and more. I’ve taught you many things.”

“What does that…”

“I thought I taught you everything, but there’s one more thing I need to teach you.”

The Dark Spiritmaster made the semi-transparent black cloth covering her mouth disappear and pressed her lips against mine.