Chapter 32 : Are you trying to buy me with money?! (1)

***Organization previously designated as a terrorist group, captured single-handedly by one user.

Giant iceberg appears at [Hellbando]’s headquarters… What is its identity?

The end of the extremist user stronghold, the [Hellbando] guild.

Mysterious mage user, what is her identity?

Over 90% of hostages survived… Psychological treatment and compensation are issues for later.***

I lazed around in my room, scanning the articles popping up in real-time.

Most were headlining the major incident that occurred yesterday.

After sending Noona home, a life of lazing around alone at home.

I had finally returned to the daily life I was most familiar with over the past year or so.

If there was an added bonus, it would be gaining two convenient servants.

“Water.”

“…Here you go!”

At the flick of my hand, Yejin quickly brought a cup, and Yerim brought a water bottle.

Then she poured the water into the cup and gently placed it on the desk.

Creating a small piece of ice in the glass with magic and drinking it was incredibly refreshing.

I savored the cool sensation traveling down my throat and looked at the new phrases that had appeared on the status window.

(Current Synchronization Rate: 1.02%)

[Synchronization Rate 1.0% achieved. <Hidden Racial Perk Skill – Pledge of Dragons> is unlocked.]

Synchronization Rate.

It was a concept I’d never seen before, but after a few experiments, I realized what that Synchronization Rate meant.

As one could guess from racial traits, races have their own unique personalities and temperaments.

Within the game, the ways to express this were limited, so it was criticized as being little more than flavor text…

But now that we, in reality, possessed the bodies of game characters, flavor text was no longer just flavor text.

Elves love nature, Dwarves show a fanatical obsession with crafting, and Demons enjoy the pain and pleasure of others, regardless of race.

Races based on monster models like Minotaurs, Ogres, and Werewolves have an innate destructive instinct, and Centaurs possess a

compulsion for running to the point of developing mental illness if they don’t run for even a day.

Beastkin are the same.

They feel a fighting spirit when seeing a strong opponent, obey those who have subjugated them, and ‘want to receive the opponent’s superior

genes’.

As my own Synchronization Rate increased, I found myself unconsciously looking down on those around me, and instances of indulging in

my own sense of superiority, like becoming a narcissist while using magic, occurred.

Just like the dragons of legend who, intoxicated by their own strength, couldn’t even objectively view their own demise.

And the more I acted like that, the higher the Synchronization Rate climbed.

‘Of course, I can’t be certain based solely on my own experience…’

I spun my computer chair around and looked at Yejin and Yerim standing behind me.

I have no idea why they had such things, but the two were wearing black and white maid outfits that Yerim apparently brought from home.

Moreover, they weren’t just wearing maid outfits; they stood with hands neatly clasped, sending gazes full of goodwill this way as if waiting

for the next command, which stirred a strange feeling in me.

The girl who was charging at me just a short while ago, intent on devouring me, now crestfallen after losing a single fight and obeying

commands…

‘As expected, the Synchronization Rate must play some part.’

Indeed, when I asked about the Synchronization Rate, I received the answer that a stat called ‘Synchronization Rate’ had appeared on Yejin’s

status window too.

She said it went up whenever her head was patted or when she felt the excitement of battle.

Of course, that alone felt insufficient, so I imposed some restrictions on her through the ‘Pledge of Dragons’ skill, which naturally emerged

with the increase in Synchronization Rate.

It was a brief skill description, but a promise with a dragon.

It’s a famous story dealt with in various legends, myths, and subcultures, isn’t it?

The story where breaking a pledge with a dragon leads to the end for both the dragon and the person who shared the pledge.

It seemed the skill <Pledge of Dragons> was a slightly more convenient version of such plots.

This was because I could arbitrarily decide the punishment inflicted if the pledge was broken, and I could also cancel the pledge immediately

if I wished.

As soon as I saw the message that this skill had appeared, I melted only the face part of Yejin trapped in the giant iceberg and successfully

received her pledge to ‘obey’ me.

When I told her to decide whether to live like livestock receiving only nutritional supplements with all limbs bound in prison, or to live in my

house, she immediately shouted she would pledge.

The punishment decided in that pledge with her, the punishment for breaking the rules I set… is a secret.

“But Yerim… why on earth are you still here?”

I finished my reminiscence and met eyes with Yerim, who stood demurely with her hands clasped, wearing a kind-looking smile.

She averted her gaze as if feigning ignorance, but couldn’t hide her trembling pupils.

When I was captured after being thoroughly deceived by a long-time friend, it was Yerim who saved me.

It was a fact I realized thanks to Yejin informing me that ‘only Yerim and I could enter the secret room where Oppa was trapped’.

Considering that, I didn’t particularly hold Yerim accountable.

Yerim was someone I owed for mediating the reconciliation between Yejin and me, and she was a good person, as there was a time I

personally relied on her.

So I forgave her and sent her home… But Yerim, whom I had definitely taken home, why on earth was she voluntarily receiving the

punishment imposed on her older sister right next to her? That was the question.

Because she didn’t want her sister to suffer the punishment alone?

If so, I could at least be moved by such tear-jerking sisterly love…

-Master! Are you going to wash up? I will scrub your back!

Like trying to enter the shower room whenever I attempted to shower.

-Master’s underwear…

Or attempting strange acts while folding laundry,

-Master, I will attend to you tonight.

She even invaded my bedroom dressed only in underwear.

Her fervor, even more intense than Yejin who actually made a pledge with me, made me shake my head.

I got angry at her constantly crossing the line like that, and even raised a hand with a cane telling her to get out of the house.

But instead, she blushed and made strange moans whenever she was hit by the cane, so I gave up on kicking her out myself.

“When are you planning to leave?”

“…”

No answer returns.

She answers eagerly when asked about anything else, but exercises her right to remain silent only on this topic.

It’s good for me because I get another convenient and pretty servant, but considering Yerim’s personal affairs and relationships, this kind of

relationship wasn’t good.

A woman wearing a maid outfit and obeying an异族 (other race) with horns that could be mistaken for a demon at first glance?

She’d be lucky if her acquaintances didn’t cut ties with her.

I looked pitifully at Yerim, who was grinning foolishly, unaware of how much I was worrying about her.

“Sigh… forget it.”

I let my head drop onto the desk as if giving up.

“It’s been a while, maybe I should play some games…”

-Ding dong.

The moment I moved the mouse, intending to log into a game site, the doorbell rang from outside.

“I’ll get it. Master, you stay there.”

“No. It might be a guest or a neighbor, so I should go. What would someone I know think if a girl in a maid outfit popped out of my house?”

Stopping Yerim who was about to dart out, I stood up from the chair.

Now finding even walking bothersome, I floated gently using <Flight> magic, slowly flew to the front door, and unlocked it.

“Who is it?”

“We’re from the Blue House.”

“…Excuse me?”

I doubted my ears for a moment, but they again requested I open the door, stating they were from the Blue House.

Well, since they came all this way, I’ll open the door, but… I cast a simple buff over the mana shield I was using to prepare for a surprise

attack.
It’s better not to be caught foolishly like with Woojin.

After the simple measure, I turned the doorknob, and agents in familiar suits and sunglasses came into view.

Fortunately, the person standing at the very front was someone I already knew.

“It’s been a while, Winter-nim.”