Chapter 22 : Omen(2)

After gently landing in front of the entrance door, I let Hyewon down from the air and pressed the password with practiced ease.

The familiar electronic sound rang out, the lock released, and eager to get inside, I flung the door open.

And was greeted by a house in complete disarray.

Underwear, tissues, and disposable items scattered everywhere. And a strong bachelor smell wafting from the room.

Wait, shouldn’t a house lived in by a woman – structurally speaking – not have a bachelor smell?

If the body is like this, shouldn’t a fragrant smell be passively equipped?

Thinking such thoughts, I covered my nose and surveyed the house. I needed to clean up the scattered trash and, first of all, ventilate the place.

“Wow. What a mess… Looks like a house where a 30-year-old unemployed person would live…”

“…When did you come in here?”

I pushed Hyewon, who had somehow entered the house and was admiring the mess, and said,

“Wait outside for a moment! I’ll clean up quickly and call you back!”

“Hehe, just wait a moment.”

Hyewon ignored my words, smiled slyly, bent down, and picked something up. I wondered what she had found, and it turned out to be underwear. However, it was adorned with black frills and ribbons.

“Cute underwear.”

“W-What?”

What she was holding was a black garter belt. I had bought it out of curiosity, worn it only once, and carelessly thrown it on the floor, but it seemed to have caused a strange misunderstanding.

“So you usually wear underwear like this~”

“Ugh, no!”

My face flushed, and I tried to snatch the underwear from her, but I couldn’t defeat the succubus race, whose dragon body was fundamentally much stronger than an average adult male.

Eventually giving up on stopping Hyewon by force, I cast a spell, glaring at her as she held the garter belt in one hand and tried to caress me.

Only after an ice blade touched her neck did she stop smiling and freeze in place.

“Give it here.”

Speaking in a deliberately lowered voice, she seemed to realize that I was genuinely angry and obediently handed me the underwear she was holding.

“H-Here you go.”

I threw the returned panties into the laundry basket. After that, I opened the window. It was partly for ventilation, but I also wanted to cool down my flushed face with the cold air.

As the cold winter air from outside filled the room, I called out to Hyewon, who was dejectedly squatting on the floor.

“Your name is… Hyewon, right? Since you’ve already seen everything, come and help me clean up the room.”

Pointing to the trash as I removed the ice blade, she nodded obediently and began to help with the cleaning.

After finishing the ventilation in a short time with wind-attribute magic and completing a round of cleaning with Hyewon’s summons, it was already midnight. It was completely dark outside.

“The house is a bit small, right? It’s relatively spacious for a two-room, but… it might be a little inconvenient to live in.

“Well, my house was originally a studio, so it’s okay. More than anything, I’m happy to be able to live with someone as cute as you.”

Saying that, Hyewon hugged me from behind. I felt the soft area unique to a huge succubus against my back, and my face flushed as I pushed her away.

-Grumble.

Suddenly, a rumbling sound. It wasn’t coming from my stomach.

My gaze naturally turned towards Hyewon’s stomach, and she gave a sheepish laugh as she stroked her stomach before flinching.

“What’s wrong, why all of a sudden?”

“Ah, my stomach still hurts from being hit earlier…”

“Really? Come here.”

I sat Hyewon down and placed my hand on her stomach.

“Ugh…”

“…Does it hurt that much?”

Seeing her wince just from the slight touch of my hand on her stomach, I asked for her consent and gently lifted her top.

“…Oh.”

Her stomach, which should have been pure white and smooth, was covered with bluish-purple bruises. I could feel her pain, and my face involuntarily contorted.

I knew that she had battle wounds on her stomach, but I had never had the opportunity to see them up close, and since she had been helping me clean up after arriving at my house, she had been covering her stomach with a blanket, so I didn’t realize it was this bad.

“…Did Yejin do this?”

“…Yes.”

“That’s a bit much. She could have subdued you in other ways.”

Like how Yerim had choked me unconscious, or at least used a joint lock and broken the barrier to call us who were eating.

It seemed like she didn’t want to interrupt our meal and tried to handle it alone…

‘It’s strange, she acts a little too excessively in these situations.’

Her mindset itself is kind, but it’s like something is missing.

Thinking that I should say something to her later, I used a simple recovery magic.

A green effect briefly illuminated the room, and as the bright light gradually faded, Hyewon sighed as if her body felt a little better. Now that I looked at it, the back of her back leaning against the wall was damp with cold sweat.

“If it hurt so much that you were sweating like this, you should have said something sooner.”

“…Even if I had said something, I’m basically a prisoner right now, so I thought you’d tell me to endure it. More than anything, I’m used to enduring these things…”

“Still, it must have been very hard. At least I could have cast a recovery magic right away.”

“This is still bearable. I’m okay.”

Her expression, as she repeatedly said that she was used to enduring pain and that she was fine, was darker than before her wounds had healed. Perhaps my words or actions had triggered her and made her recall bad memories.

To overcome this negative atmosphere, I decided to use a cheat key. I picked up my phone and pressed the address book at the very top of the call history screen.

Soon, a cheerful violin sound was heard, followed by the cheerful voice of an ajumma that I heard several times a week.

-Yes~ This is 00 Chicken!

There’s nothing like delicious food and alcohol to lighten the mood. If that delicious food and alcohol are chicken and beer, respectively, anyone who is Korean knows that the synergy doesn’t need a separate explanation.

-I’d like a OO Combo Half and Half set. Cola for the drink, and I’ll use the french fry coupon too.

-Delivery will take about an hour, is that okay with you?

-I’ll just pick it up myself.

After ending the brief call, I put down my phone and Hyewon asked.

“Is it chicken?”

“Yeah. I thought you might be hungry since I saw you earlier.”

That clear rumbling sound was bothering me. The time we arrived at the restaurant for lunch was twelve o’clock. Since it was a little early for lunch, there was almost no possibility that Hyewon, who had been in a fight with Yejin since then, had eaten lunch. She probably skipped lunch and now it was midnight, so it was no different from skipping dinner as well.

Even if a user’s body is close to superhuman, everyone basically feels the desire of hunger. Since she skipped lunch and dinner altogether, the intensity of her hunger must have been incredibly strong.

I felt a little guilty for making Hyewon, who was holding her hungry stomach while enduring the pain, clean the room, so I wanted to give her a chicken set as a kind of reward.

As expected, Hyewon’s reaction was quite positive, as if the reward of chicken had worked well.

“…How did you know I liked chicken.”

A bright smile appeared on her face, and she kept swallowing saliva as if saliva had gathered in her salivary glands.

“I can tell just by looking at you. How many people hate chicken in the first place?”

“That’s true.”

When I smiled and replied like that, she smiled back.

“I’ll be right back, so stay still.”

“There’s nothing I can do even if I run away since I can’t even use magic properly.”

“Is that so?”

Of course, it was true that she could use magic to a limited extent, so I carefully placed a barrier so that she could not leave my house. Affection is affection, and public and private matters must be kept. If I was careless and she escaped, Yejin and Yerim would be in trouble.

After the high-level magic that casts various barriers was cast, a barrier that would take her an hour to get out of even in full condition without the restrictions of magic was completed.

Now completely relieved, I checked the time. I had been so focused on setting up the barrier that 30 minutes had passed.

“It’s about time the chicken came out. I’ll be right back. There are beer cans in the refrigerator, so set them up before I arrive.”

“The setting will be done quickly, so have a safe trip. I’ll be waiting!”

And so, for the first time in a long time, I left the house while being seen off by someone.

For some reason, I felt a ticklish feeling in one corner of my chest.