Ch.6121. In the Studio Apartment (3)

After brushing my teeth, I lay back down in bed.

Arin went to brush her teeth too. She had already placed her own toothbrush in my bathroom. It felt completely natural.

When Arin returned, she casually lay down beside me.

“Should I sleep on the floor?”

“Why are you suddenly being like this? It’s not like this is the first time we’ve slept together.”

“Don’t phrase it like that. People might misunderstand if they hear.”

Perhaps because she was wearing casual clothes for once, I was strangely conscious of Arin today.

In truth, Arin had good fashion sense. I knew that whenever she wore casual clothes, she always attracted attention on the streets.

‘Though she mostly wears her nun’s habit since becoming a nun.’

When I regained consciousness, Arin was wearing her nun’s habit. Although I couldn’t meet people due to my severe social anxiety at the time, Arin was the exception.

Seeing Arin in her nun’s habit calmed my mind.

And the holy incantations she began casting on me after manifesting her holy power.

The fact that I could move like this now, despite having only regained consciousness without proper bodily function, was all thanks to Arin.

‘The rehabilitation training was absolutely terrible.’

My destroyed mana heart affected my entire body. After all, mana channels are distributed throughout the body.

With my mana channels tangled in disarray, my body wouldn’t move properly. To make matters worse, I had lost all my muscle mass after lying unconscious for a year. It was a disaster upon disaster.

For rehabilitation, I had to relearn everything from walking to every movement from scratch. The process was horrifying even to think about now.

Without my intense hatred for the Red Lake, and without Arin’s devoted care, I would never have been able to join Flame within just a year.

‘Being able to quickly move mana through my mana channels again was also thanks to Arin.’

In place of the mana I couldn’t use at the time, Arin directly infused her holy power into my mana channels, allowing me to maintain a sense of my mana channels.

The process was dangerous and consumed an extreme amount of physical and mental energy.

Yet Arin, despite being a third-year at Eins at the time, would always visit the hospital after her lectures and training to help with my rehabilitation.

On weekends, she would stay with me all day. That’s why having Arin right next to my bed had become familiar.

But now her aura felt strange. Though she was a pure Earthling and Korean, she had natural pink hair and those pink eyes were now fixed on me.

“Senior… it’s still February, so it’s cold, isn’t it?”

As she said this while meeting my gaze, she moved closer to me. Today she seemed to have sprayed perfume she rarely used.

I couldn’t help but glance again at her upper body, accentuated by her ribbed sweater. Arin’s pink eyes took on an even more sultry look.

“Senior, do you know how many times you’ve looked at my chest today?”

“I did no such thing.”

I pretended otherwise, but Arin seemed to have noticed everything.

Arin linked her arm with mine. Even if I tried not to feel it, I couldn’t ignore the softness pressing against my upper body.

Now that I looked, it seemed she had deliberately worn such a tight sweater.

‘This is driving me crazy.’

Unless one were impotent, it would be impossible not to recognize the signals Arin was sending. It was blatant seduction. But I had to resist.

‘Arin is… precious to me.’

Though I knew her feelings, and countless times I nearly accepted them—no, in truth, I wanted to—

I am a person who will die someday. And the more precise my mana usage becomes, the more clearly I feel the backlash.

‘If I release more of the seal, the backlash will be much more intense.’

The fractures from that backlash will begin to erode my mana heart and mana channels. And through those cracks, my remaining lifespan will leak away.

I didn’t want to make Arin lose another precious person after already losing Siwoo and Mina, who were like family to her.

So I couldn’t become Arin’s lover.

But as if completely unaware of my inner thoughts, Arin pressed her lips close to my ear and whispered:

“You don’t have to hold back, Senior.”

Feeling like things would get out of hand if this continued, I pulled my arm away from hers.

“Stop joking around and go to sleep. You have work tomorrow. And I’m tired from my business trip.”

“Oh my. What did you do with the Guild Master on your trip that made you so tired? Did you exert yourself a lot?”

“Stop making weird jokes.”

I turned away from Arin and lay on my side. Of course, Arin immediately hugged my back.

“I like your broad back, Senior.”

I could feel Arin burying her face in my back. The soft sensation against my body remained.

But not facing Arin allowed me to calm my excited feelings a bit.

When I suffered from nightmares and trauma in the hospital, Arin’s embrace like this would always soothe my mind.

It was warm and soft.

My eyes began to close. The fatigue from the Seoraksan trip still lingered. No matter how much Arin tempted me, my body was too tired.

Just as I was about to drift off to sleep, Arin complained:

“Senior! Even if you’re going to sleep, you should at least give me a goodnight kiss! That’s why I brushed my teeth!”

“Stop saying nonsense and go to sleep.”

“Tch. You’re mean, Senior.”

Her words made me feel guilty. I could never properly return Arin’s feelings or the gratitude I felt toward her.

After some hesitation, I turned back around. Our eyes met.

And unlike her playful words, Arin’s pink eyes seemed to be wet with sadness. I couldn’t leave her like that.

“S-Senior, why are you suddenly…?”

Arin tried to change the subject as if nothing was wrong after being caught with that look, but I ignored her and pulled her into my arms.

“Senior…? Mmph…”

Soon, our lips met.

***

The night ended with just a kiss—I wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or disappointed.

By morning, Arin had already left for work. It seemed like her own consideration not to be seen leaving together.

‘That’s a relief…’

I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. And I couldn’t help thinking about the strange dream I had last night.

It was an embarrassing dream that made me check my lower body as soon as I woke up. No matter how familiar Arin was, having a young man and woman sleep in the same bed was too stimulating.

‘At least I didn’t have a wet dream.’

If Arin had discovered that, it would truly be a matter of human dignity. And Arin, who frequently came in and out of my apartment, often did my laundry.

‘She even hand-washes my underwear and socks.’

At this point, I wasn’t sure if Arin wanted to be my girlfriend or my mother.

Anyway, I ate the breakfast Arin had prepared and headed to Flame headquarters.

Since the elevator didn’t go directly to the field team’s office floor, I went to the floor above as usual.

Arin, who had arrived earlier, was chatting with the female employees from the operations team. Her sociability was truly remarkable.

‘To think she didn’t properly enjoy her life at Eins because of me.’

I felt guilty again, but that feeling changed when I saw Arin whispering with the female employees while looking at me.

“What were you talking about?”

“I told them that Senior’s love life is actually very complicated. Since you’re such a womanizer, I warned the operations team sisters to be careful.”

“Why are you slandering me first thing in the morning?”

“Spreading such rumors keeps you safe. It would be troublesome for me if more people started liking you.”

“Who would like someone as ordinary as me…”

Joking with Arin like this, we went downstairs. It was only 9 AM, so it seemed not all field team members had arrived yet.

‘Uncle Donghyuk isn’t here yet… and Executive Maria is here?’

I saw two people who had already arrived: Executive Maria and Team Leader Seo Duho.

“Minsu, you’re here. How was your business trip? Good morning to you too, Arin.”

Team Leader Seo greeted us first. I greeted him and Executive Maria as well.

“Good morning, Team Leader Seo. Executive Maria.”

Executive Maria nodded in response to my greeting.

“Good morning. As it happens, I needed to speak with Minsu. You’ve come at a good time.”

Maria was a typical Slavic beauty, with brown curly hair and wearing a tight formal suit. She had a sophisticated adult style.

Although Maria was still in her twenties, she felt much older since Yuri, Soso, and I were all in our early twenties.

At that moment, I noticed Arin’s gaze shift toward Maria.

Since Arin was slightly shorter than average, she seemed concerned about the tall Maria. I saw her pink eyes darken momentarily.

‘Normally I’d tell Arin not to think strange thoughts, but…’

Unfortunately, the embarrassing dream I had about Arin last night was still vivid in my memory, and I missed the timing to speak.

Fortunately, Team Leader Seo Duho helped me out.

“Ah, about that matter. I’ll join you as well.”

At his words indicating he would also attend, Arin’s expression returned to normal.

‘Is she relieved?’

Leaving Arin behind for the moment, I moved to the field team’s conference room.

***

In the conference room, Executive Maria had a screen displayed. Team Leader Seo Duho and I were listening to her explanation.

“The threshold conditions for the S-rank dungeon cooperation mission have been determined. According to the task force command, hunters with thresholds below 80 cannot participate even in support missions.”

A task force led by the Hunter Association had been formed to tackle the S-rank dungeon. A task force—an organization created temporarily for special missions.

‘Although Flame is an S-rank guild… the participating guilds are all top-tier.’

That’s why even guilds like Flame, which were assigned to secondary support roles, had strict participation requirements.

For regular dungeon missions, hunters with thresholds around 60 could easily participate. This strictness showed they would absolutely not accept hunters with even slight disqualifying factors.

“But fortunately, Flame has no issues. The indicators you see on screen are the thresholds of our Flame raid members. These are the most recently updated thresholds. Everyone meets the conditions.”

“Including the Guild Master?”

“Yes. The Guild Master returned to headquarters yesterday after her business trip and completed her threshold measurement. So there should be no changes.”

The other members had already completed their measurements. Normally, I should have had my threshold measured after returning from the business trip with Yuri.

But both Executive Maria and Team Leader Seo already knew that I was an anomaly without a threshold.

“This is encouraging. All elite members having thresholds over 80—we haven’t seen that in a while.”

Team Leader Seo said. As he mentioned, Soso’s threshold was a mess when she first joined. And Yuri’s threshold had been unstable too.

Though not anymore, of course.

“The Guild Master’s current threshold is 85, and Team Leader Yeon’s is 83. It seems we can submit these threshold records to the Association as they are.”

At that moment, Executive Maria looked at me. Beautiful but with cold eyes. Sharp eyes that seemed to be observing people.

‘That’s so like Maria.’

In truth, Maria and I didn’t get along well during our time at Eins.

Maria’s family was a distinguished one that had served the Tarkovsky family for generations. Maria herself was a loyal maid who had served Yuri since childhood.

Even when Yuri left the Grand Duke’s residence for several years to learn hunting, she assisted with part of that training.

‘Maria is a highly skilled sniper, after all.’

Unlike me, Maria hadn’t received professional operator training. Nevertheless, the reason Maria could serve as the operator for Flame’s raid team was because of her exceptional skills as an awakened sniper.

Given the characteristics of a sniper—hiding in the most secretive places and observing distant views—she had sufficient qualities for an operator.

Being so exceptional, Maria couldn’t like me, who had defeated her precious lady in a duel. And afterward, Yuri treated me like an enemy for a while.

But even Maria came to acknowledge me after Yuri and I became noticeably closer during the winter special training.

Above all, my skills as an awakened one improved dramatically from that training onward. But that’s all in the past now.

‘Now we’re just superior and employee at Flame.’

And Maria would be a tremendous help in annihilating the Red Lake. As I was lost in thought, Maria looked at me and spoke:

“Thanks to having an excellent operator join us, the chronic threshold problem has been resolved. I’m relieved.”

“The Executive is right. Especially Team Leader Yeon’s threshold wouldn’t increase no matter what we tried. But things changed after Minsu joined.”

“That’s right. It’s all thanks to Minsu.”

Since Maria rarely praised people, Team Leader Seo Duho looked intrigued by her words.

“Oh, that reminds me. I have something to ask of you, Minsu. Would you attend the task force meeting at the Association headquarters in my place? Along with the Guild Master and Team Leader Yeon.”

At those words, even Team Leader Seo looked surprised for a moment.