Chapter 59

Chapter 59

Otherworld Cheat Harem.

Episode 59: Martial Exchange (5).

Hoyang licked her lips as she looked at me. Watching this, Namwoong lightly smacked Hoyang on the head from the side.

Bang! A sound that shouldn’t have come from her head reverberated, and Hoyang sat down, clutching her head.

“Ouch! Boss! What are you doing?!”

“Don’t go into heat. She’s your sister’s guest.”

“Wh-who said I was in heat…?!”

Hoyang pretended ignorance, as if she had completely forgotten her earlier antics. However, this didn’t work on Namwoong, who had known her for a long time.

He bowed his head while looking at me. To be precise, he bowed to Eunha standing next to me.

“Sorry. The Tiger Tribe is full of lust-crazed bastards…”

“Isn’t that something that applies to Master Hoyeon too?”

“…She’s different. You’d know if you’ve seen her.”

“Well, she didn’t show such behavior…”

Though they must have trained in the same martial arts, seeing the gentle Hoyeon and the unabashedly desire-driven Hoyang, I realized how different individuals of the same species could be.

“What are you all doing?”

At that moment, Hoyeon returned. Hoyang quickly ran to Hoyeon, burying her head in her chest, and began to act cute.

“Sis… the Boss is bullying me…”

“Oh dear, you must have done something wrong.”

“Oh come on, Sis, why are you like that? Can’t you believe me just once?”

“Considering your antics, I can’t do that.”

Hoyang soon gave up and moved away from her. Hoyeon, looking at Hoyang with a displeased expression, then turned to us and said the room was done being cleaned.

“Sorry, but there are only three rooms left. It seems like Hoyang and I will share one room, Namwoong and Sayeong another, and Dojin and Eunha will have to share the last one…”

Hoyeon looked at Eunha and me apologetically. I turned to look at Eunha. She nodded slightly, her face a bit flushed.

I didn’t have any particular feelings for her, so I accepted it, saying it was fine. I ignored Hoyang, who clicked her tongue regretfully.

We headed to our respective rooms and then gathered again in the main building for a meal.

“…You.”

Sayeong, who had awakened at some point, was sitting with a bandage wrapped around his head. However, as Hoyeon had mentioned before, he didn’t approach me separately after being beaten by a human and having his swordsmanship stolen.

Every time he saw my face, the memories of his defeat seemed to surface, and he often grimaced…

Since the beastmen were accustomed to sitting on the floor with individual tables, there was no friction. In fact, there was no room for any conflict to arise in the first place.

He thoroughly ignored my existence, and I had no particular business with him either. He quietly finished his meal and returned to his room.

“That guy didn’t say a word during the meal…”

“He must have been really shocked. Dojin, you did a great job.”

“Huh? No, well… I don’t know what I did.”

I scratched my head and finished the meal that Hoyeon had prepared. Although beastmen often had the image of tearing into raw, bloody meat, Hoyeon, who had lived in a civilized city for a long time, seemed to have long distanced herself from such raw food, serving proper dishes instead.

‘Yesterday was Elven cuisine… So would this be considered traditional Beastman food?’

As I patted my protein-filled belly, Hoyeon told us the location of the bathhouse. Since it was a large dojo, the bathhouse was separated by gender.

Slightly surprised by this fact, I headed to the bathhouse with Namwoong. There, a huge hot spring awaited us.

“Oh, this is a nice hot spring.”

“…Do beastmen also have a hobby of bathing?”

“Of course, what do you take us for? If we hated bathing, we would be nothing more than simple beasts. We are people.”

Listening to his words, I reflected on my subconsciously held discriminatory thoughts about beastmen and went inside.

Namwoong’s body was covered in various scars, yet it was filled with muscles that couldn’t be hidden even by those scars.

However, it wasn’t the visually pleasing muscles of a bodybuilder, but rather the mixed fat and muscle build of a sumo or wrestling athlete, literally a bear-like physique.

He burst into laughter as he looked at my body, where body fat was managed.

“Did you beat Sayeong with that kind of body? That’s impressive.”

“Well, humans also emphasize aesthetics.”

“Hmm, if there was someone like you in our tribe, we would have arrested his parents.”

“What? Why?”

“Because unless they were starving and being abused, such a body wouldn’t exist. Hahaha!”

Watching Namwoong laugh as he said that, I couldn’t laugh at all.

He lightly wiped off the sweat and dust from his whole body and went straight into the bath. Although he appeared to be around 100 kg, the bathwater that overflowed as he entered seemed to be hundreds of liters.

Staring blankly at that absurd sight, I belatedly entered the bathhouse. With a clear view of the sky, it didn’t seem to have any visible water source, yet it was warm and impeccably clean, not a speck of dirt in sight.

‘What is this…?’

Looking closely at the bottom of the bath, I saw something resembling a magic circle. In other words, this hot spring was created and maintained by magic.

‘What kind of hot spring is this?’

Well, there were people on Earth who would dissolve bath additives in plain water and claim it was a hot spring, but I didn’t expect the same thing to happen in another world.

As I splashed around and silently observed the bath, Namwoong spoke first.

“Where is your sect?”

“I don’t have one.”

“Oh, a lone sect?”

“I learned from my father. He’s not around anymore, though…”

“Has he passed away?”

“Something like that.”

He was healthy, but now he’s as good as dead. He’s on Earth, where I can never return. In that sense, Earth and the afterlife are the same, places I can never see again.

“That’s unfortunate.”

Namwoong said, tilting his head back to gaze at the sky. The night sky, which should have been dark, was filled with starlight pouring down.

He washed his face with the hot spring water and began to hum a tune. When the humming naturally came to a stop, he spoke as if it was nothing.

“What’s your relationship with Hoyeon?”

“…Pardon?”

“Oh, I’m not interrogating you. I know there’s nothing like that…”

His expression as he spoke seemed somewhat wistful, like he was reminiscing about a forgotten old love.

I quietly looked at him before speaking.

“Eunha is my companion.”

“Eunha…?”

“The disciple of Master Hoyeon, you know, the one who fought alongside you.”

“Ah, are you talking about that child? A colleague, perhaps a lover?”

“Not a lover…”

“Oh my, she seemed like such a nice lady. That’s unfortunate.”

“Pardon? Unfortunate? What do you mean…?”

“It’s nothing.”

He said that and turned his head. At that moment, a loud voice came from beyond the wall covering the hot spring.

“Ah! I want to mate! Mate!”

It wasn’t Eunha’s voice. It sounded like Hoyeon’s voice… but higher in pitch, like Hoyang’s.

Upon hearing that voice, Namwoong started sighing deeply, as if embarrassed. Then he looked at me with an apologetic expression.

“She’s not a bad child… but as I mentioned before, the Tiger Tribe tends to live according to their desires….”

“I understand.”

“Mate! Wild animal se─!”

“Hey, you! We can all hear you!”

“Oh! Boss! Are you there? Alone? Dojin is there, too, right? Dojin~ I’m the only one here, want to come over?”

“Crazy woman…”

Namwoong said that. Though I couldn’t say it out loud, I agreed with him. The rampage of Hoyang, which had been going on for a while, was finally subdued by the belated arrival of Hoyeon.

After a brief silence, I continued the conversation with him.

“What do you do, Mr. Namwoong?”

“Oh, I apologize for the late introduction. I’m Namwoong, captain of the 1st Assault Unit, 13th Ranger Battalion of the Beast Tribe Combat Bloodline.”

“A high-ranking… person, I see?”

I had no idea how the military was structured in this world or what the Beast Tribe was like, so I couldn’t tell how high his rank was, but he did say captain, didn’t he?

He must be high-ranking. In Sudden Attack1, a captain had five stars. Is it something like that?

“Haha, it’s not such a high position.”

“Isn’t a captain a high rank?”

“Have you never been to the army?”

“Well, no…”

“Hmm, I see. Well, that’s possible.”

Yes, I haven’t served. And there was one fact that came to mind after hearing his words.

‘When I return to Earth… do I have to go to the army?’

No matter how eager Korea was about conscription, I doubt they’d chase me to another world.

But if, just if, I were to return to Earth, would I be dragged into the army?

‘Well then… I suddenly don’t want to go back.’

A strong sense of enlightenment washed over me. As I buried my head in the bath and exhaled, I saw the massive figure in front of me standing up, so I stood up as well.

“Oh, you… never mind. Someone might be listening.”

“Suddenly, what…?”

“No, just, you’re manly and robust. You.”

Namwoong left the bathroom, leaving behind an inexplicable compliment. I also dried myself off and left the bathroom, heading to the room.

Since Eunha hadn’t returned yet, I laid out the bedding and waited for her.

After a while.

“…Did you wait?”

“No.”

With a creak, the door opened, and Eunha appeared. Since there was no hairdryer in this world, her hair was still damp and moist.

Watching a single droplet of water fall from her wet hair onto her collarbone, I was reminded that, no matter how young she looked, she was indeed a woman.

“You need to dry your hair.”

“Oh, yes. But there’s no hairdryer here…”

“I’ll dry it for you. Come here.”

“Huh, okay?”

I took Eunha to the porch. Sitting on the porch, I had her sit between my legs and quietly raised my energy.

The Yang energy of the Body of Extreme Yang surged up, emitting heat from my hands. My hands were now as good as a natural hairdryer.

With my heated hands, I gently stroked Eunha’s hair, brushing away the moisture.

Nestled in my arms, she seemed a bit shy about drying her hair like this, keeping her head down and silently accepting my touch.

Finding her stillness amusing, I reached out with my other hand to tease her.

“Eek?!”

Startled by the icy touch that sent shivers down her spine, Eunha turned to look back. I raised my hand, laughing to show it was just a joke.

And then, I realized that Eunha wasn’t wearing any underwear. Did she think she didn’t need it since there wasn’t much to cover?

‘It’s not that small, though…?’

Or perhaps she couldn’t borrow any underwear, I wondered as I gazed steadily at her back, and she, realizing I was staring, slowly stood up.

“I-I think that’s enough… I’m sleepy, let’s sleep…”

Carefully slipping out of my embrace, she quickly returned to her bed and pulled the blanket over her head.

Unable to tease her further once she was under the covers, I wished her a good night and tucked myself in.

Moonlight faintly pierced through the paper door, illuminating the room. The quiet chirping of insects filled the air, lulling me to sleep.

It felt like a trip, lying on the floor in a place other than the mansion after such a long time.

Such simple joys were the driving force in life. Slowly, ever so slowly. I descended into the abyss.

Into my inner self, where no one else could intrude.

And then…

Something pounced on me. I quickly opened my eyes and raised my body. Simultaneously, my arms and legs were restrained. I struggled to move, but I couldn’t budge.

My rolling eyes met the amber eyes before me. The golden gaze encountered in the dead of night was so sharp it sent a shiver down my spine.

Soon, my night-adapted vision identified the owner of the eyes.

“Hello, Oppa?”

The once boisterous voice had vanished, replaced by a soft, gentle voice crawling into my ear, tickling it.

“Good evening.”

A colorful tail tickled my thigh.

“Would you like to enjoy something better…?”

A tigress in heat had come.

ED/N: A popular South Korean online first-person shooter (FPS) game ↩️