Chapter 357: Graduation (3) (Mature Illustration)

「Viewers, Happy New Year~!」

“…….”

Bbeep.

After listening to the MC’s New Year’s greeting on the year-end awards ceremony program, I got up from the living room sofa and immediately grabbed the remote to turn off the TV.

As soon as the volume of the noisy broadcast program disappeared, a serene silence descended.

Empty plates and a couple of beer cans, illuminated by the fluorescent light, indirectly told the story of the lonely drinking session that had just ended.

“I should probably start cleaning up….”

Wanting to break the silence, I deliberately muttered to myself as I picked up the empty cans on the table one by one.

So, I’m welcoming the New Year alone again this year.

It wasn’t particularly strange. I’d spent the last day of the year alone last year, and the year before that.

Since it’s the busiest time for Hunters, it had become difficult to spend the year-end together with Hye-eun since the year before last.

Eunyoung Noona also used to meet up with her old colleagues to catch up on the last day of the year.

It wasn’t something I could disrupt with my personal desires, especially during such rare and enjoyable times.

Still, this year’s last day is comparatively better. Compared to last year and the year before, when absolutely nothing happened, I at least spent time with Han Min-ah until the afternoon today.

In fact, even while spending time drinking alone like this, I harbored a vague hope that Han Min-ah might suddenly drop by.

Her suggestive remarks before we parted, like telling me to eat something good for my energy or asking if my home address had changed, had strangely gotten my hopes up.

They were enough to make me mistakenly believe she might be planning a surprise visit.

Of course, as you can see, the day passed by uneventfully, making my hopes completely futile.

If it was going to be like this, why did she even ask if my address had changed?

Muttering a little spite towards her in my mind, I tidied up the dishes on the table and wiped them down.

“Still, though….”

Although I ended up spending the last day of the year alone again, the accomplishments I made throughout the entire year were countless.

I obtained an awakened ability called ‘Hunter Lust Manager’ for the first time, started at the Guild and became a formal Hunter, took on a crazy amount of underlying requests to get promoted to Rank B, and even transferred to a company with the help of Eunyoung Noona and Min-ah.

Needless to say, there were the new connections I made in the process. Of course, my relationships with people I already knew also deepened.

Hye-eun, Yuri, Sihee, Min-ah, Eunyoung Noona, Hwayoung Sunbae, and even Eunbyul.

Could I, this time last year, have ever imagined that I would become intimate with seven women within a year, no, within half a year?

Let alone imagine it, I would have dismissed it as nonsense even if someone presented it to me as a future prediction. Especially considering that most of the women I became intimate with were Rank A or higher Hunters.

Of course, I have no intention of being satisfied with just this much. If things continue like this, I’ll likely be much busier next year than I am now.

First of all, I needed to make the Sky Blue Shield even stronger going forward. Hye-eun’s existing party was already functioning sufficiently as a Rank A Hunter party, but by me joining them, the potential roles and possibilities have grown infinitely.

Not only will I be promoted to Rank A Hunter soon, but there’s also a sufficiently visible possibility of making the entire party Rank A+ or even Rank S.

To achieve that, there were inevitably many things that needed to be done first, though.

Things like reinforcing the team for the stable growth of the Sky Blue Shield, or resolving the complex and subtle relationship between Cheon Jihee Sunbae and Hye-eun.

Still, if I just keep doing things as I have so far, it’s bound to work out well enough in the future.

Thinking about all that, it would be ridiculous to feel bitter just because I’m spending one day of the year-end alone.

-Clink clink, …Thud.

After finishing the dishes to clear away the traces of dinner and my late-night snack, I dragged my slightly tired body straight to the second-floor bedroom.

Since I didn’t have any plans to go out anywhere tomorrow, sleeping in late and waking up leisurely would probably be fine.

With that thought, I lay down on my bed and, without resisting the oncoming sleepiness, went straight to sleep.

Now, it’s finally the New Year.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

As all darkness settled, in the deepest part of the night when most ordinary people were asleep.

-Tuk tuk. Tuk tuk.

“……”

-Tuk tuk. Tuk tuk.

“Ugh, ughh….”

I too was fast asleep, just like other people with normal life patterns, but… suddenly, the sound of knocking on the bedroom balcony’s glass door inadvertently woke me up.

Perhaps it’s raining outside?

It was strangely odd that it was raining, not snowing, in this season, but it wasn’t important enough to disturb my deep sleep, so… Unable to overcome the fatigue that washed over me again, I quietly closed my eyes and focused on sleeping.

-Tuk tuk. Tuk tuk.

“……”

-Tuk tuk. Tuk tuk.

“…Oraboni. …Please open.”

“……Hmm?”

…What is it?

I think I just heard a woman’s voice that sounded strangely familiar. Thinking maybe I’d fallen asleep with YouTube on, I checked my smartphone, but no apps that could make noise were running.

Sensing something was strange, I got up from the bed, and the sound from earlier continued again.

-Tuk tuk. Tuk tuk.

It was the sound of tapping rhythmically on the balcony window, just like knocking.

Thinking about it again, it was an awkward sound for rain. If it had been the sound of raindrops hitting the balcony window, it would have sounded much more like a pattering shower.

There was also no scene visible through the gap in the blackout curtains that particularly suggested it was raining, so the mystery of the balcony glass door, which had started ringing in the middle of the night, deepened.

Not long after, the woman’s voice, now slightly clearer, reached my ears again.

“Oraboni, please open the door.”

“……Huh?”

The calm voice, strangely reminiscent of someone like Han Min-ah, was coming from outside the balcony. The sound of tapping the glass door continued again, so I got up from the bed to confirm its identity.

After turning on the bedroom light and pulling back the blackout curtains to the right, I was able to find the identity of the voice that had woken me from my deep sleep.

“…Han Seon-ah?”

Han Seon-ah, sitting cross-legged outside the glass door, nodded in response to my voice.

I don’t know why, but she was completely naked.

And what’s more, she was partially transformed by manifesting her awakened ability.

“You’ve finally woken up, Oraboni.”

“Uh, yeah….”

Han Seon-ah, who had abruptly appeared on the second-floor bedroom balcony, confused me for various complex reasons. As soon as I saw her, about ten questions flashed through my mind.

Since I couldn’t organize my thoughts on what to ask first, I decided to ask them one by one as they came to mind.

“…What brings you here at this hour?”

“Oraboni, the time has come for you to keep the promise you made to me.”

“Huh……?”

As I tilted my head, wondering what she was suddenly muttering about, Han Seon-ah’s next words followed from beyond the glass door, as if she had been waiting.

“You promised at my place the other day. That after I became a formal Hunter and caught ten monsters, you would take my virginity.”

“Ah, yeah….”

“That’s a relief. I was a little worried you might have forgotten, Oraboni….”

…Right, I did make a promise like that.

That after graduating from Hunter Training High School and becoming formal Hunters, if they caught 10 monsters, I would take Jin-ah’s and Seon-ah’s first experience.

And from the recent conversation, I could immediately grasp that the reason Seon-ah suddenly appeared now, in the early morning of the day they both became formal Hunters, was related to that.

She was here to ask me to keep my promise to take her virginity now that she’d become a formal Hunter and caught ten monsters.

That was likely the only reason she visited my house at this early dawn.

As if to prove it, the clear value of Awakening Points, not a locked padlock, was already displayed next to Seon-ah’s face.

And what’s more, a considerable amount of Awakening Points at that.

『Estimated Acquisition of Awakening Points: 200』

Come to think of it, I received roughly this amount of Awakening Points when I helped Min-ah through her first heat.

Essentially, the sheer amount of accumulated Awakening Points was practically equivalent to Seon-ah being in heat.

Considering she was in heat, she looked much calmer and more composed compared to Min-ah’s first heat, though.

“Oraboni, it’s a bit cold. Could you please open the door?”

“Ah, sorry, sorry.”

I was so dumbfounded by the utterly surreal sight before my eyes that I had completely forgotten about the weather.

It’s only natural to be cold if you’re left outside naked in the middle of winter like this.

Of course, Seon-ah has ‘Wild Power’, her awakened ability, so she might have relatively higher resistance to the cold compared to ordinary humans, but there was no need to keep her outside.

“You must be cold. Come in quickly.”

Han Seon-ah, who sprang up the moment the balcony door lock opened, immediately hugged me as if it were the most natural thing as soon as she entered the bedroom.

Her soft yet slightly cold skin could be felt through the fabric of my pajamas.

“…Seon-ah?”

“Hngh, haah, hngh, haah….”

I thought she seemed calmer than expected for someone in heat, but still, she couldn’t completely suppress her instincts, could she?

Still, compared to Min-ah’s first heat, where she caused such a huge commotion, this was definitely a calm reaction.

Min-ah had been living as a Hunter for nearly two and a half years before I helped her through her heat for the first time, so she probably had accumulated that much sexual desire.

In comparison, Seon-ah had just become a Hunter today, and this was her first heat, so she was likely feeling the backlash relatively less.

“Hngh… haah…. Oraboni’s scent….”

Carefully holding Han Seon-ah, who was hugging me naked and sniffing my scent, I locked the balcony door, which let in drafts, again.

Perhaps because she’s like a younger sister I’ve known since childhood, touching her bare skin feels strangely guilty.

But still, she was practically an adult last year, so her age probably doesn’t matter.

The promise itself to take her virginity had no particular issues, but there was still one thing that needed to be addressed.

“Seon-ah.”

“Yes, Oraboni.”

“So, why were you on my house’s balcony?”

…By what means exactly had she broken into my house’s balcony naked.

As the one who would take Seon-ah’s first experience, I felt I had the right to know at least that much.

(This is a variation of the illustration above.)