Episode 44. Lumi Strategy

Lucy’s face turned red like boiling lava.

“You, you… saw everything, right…? T-then, maybe…?”

“Hold on. Wait, Lucy. Wait! Don’t get up! You’re a patient right now!”

“Tell me clearly. Did you do anything weird to me or not. I, I really don’t think I can stand it?”

Magic power was wafting from Lucy’s body.

This is really dangerous. I quickly continued speaking.

“Lucy. Calm down and listen to me first.”

“But my stomach… No, more precisely, that place below my stomach….”

Lucy looked at me, her face flushing red. As if begging for a proper explanation.

“The lust magic cast on you, I reverse-calculated it. I don’t know much about a woman’s body, but that feeling is likely a side effect of the lust.”

“R-reverse-calculation? Lies! How can you reverse-calculate? That’s an incredibly advanced process!”

“I’ll prove it. Next week in Magic Analysis, remember we’re learning barrier removal? I’ll show you then. Then you can believe me, right?”

“…Yeah. But if you can’t… No, please do it… That’s better.”

“Professor Im Sol was there too. Nothing really happened, I swear. If you’re still worried, you can ask her.”

“Yeah… Okay. I’ll believe you.”

When Lucy heard Professor Im Sol’s name, she seemed to finally calm down.

If I got caught, I’d have to strongly argue it was a rescue operation, therefore I was innocent. In an era where even artificial respiration can lead to a sexual harassment lawsuit, I wasn’t sure if that would fly.

‘Still, I got through it for now.’

Lucy’s expression brightened again too.

“Oh, right. Now that you’re awake, I need to contact the doctor.”

I pressed the call button next to the bed to call a nurse.

As soon as the nurse entered, seeing the awakened Lucy, she said she’d bring the doctor and left again.

“This is fortunate. The results for demonic energy infection will be out soon. Of course, seeing you awake like this, the possibility seems low.”

The doctor came, performed a light examination, and said the test results would be out soon. Naturally, the results were clear.

As soon as we confirmed the results, we immediately proceeded with the discharge procedures.

“So, um. Do you want to get something to eat together before we go?”

Lucy asked me as soon as we left the hospital.

“Are you okay? You look tired.”

Anyone could see Lucy looked exhausted. It hadn’t been that long since she went through that, so of course she wouldn’t be fine.

“B-but! I can still eat!”

“Don’t worry about that. Go on. I rushed the discharge so quickly, I forgot to contact her, but Lumi was incredibly worried.”

“Ah, ah! Right, Lumi! I have to go see Lumi! Let’s eat next time! Sorry!”

Lucy’s face turned pale, and she dashed off towards the women’s dormitory.

Lumi’s worry seemed much more important than me and a meal.

Well, according to the setting, they’re twins like that.

I headed towards my dormitory too.

I wonder if Liliana is guarding the house well. Should I just not bring her around anymore? But if I did that, who knows what kind of trouble she’d cause.

‘To end up like this after falling for a hellish fraudulent contract. What a mess.’

Still, she earns good money. I recently saw a post titled ‘[Newbie Academy Streamer’s Daily Income.jpg]’, so I don’t think I need to worry about the cost of maintaining Liliana. The maintenance cost is just over ten million won a month, but she earns in the millions of won per day. This is literally a money printer. Liliana is shoveling money at me.

‘Ah, let me re-check the dungeon practical training schedule.’ I’d checked it once, but I needed to make sure there weren’t any changes. I should check thoroughly.

Lost in thought, I arrived at the dormitory.

Ttiring-

I held my smartwatch to the door lock and opened the door to enter.

The dormitory was quiet with the lights off. Liliana was nowhere to be seen.

“Is she streaming in her room? No, the lights weren’t on when I was coming here.”

Kkiik. Kwang! Dadadadot!

As I was taking off my shoes, I heard the sound of a room door opening and slamming shut, and Liliana came running to the entrance.

“Haa, haa, haa… Welcome back.”

Her tracksuit was disheveled, and her face was flushed red.

Is she sick somewhere?

“Yeah. Hey.”

“Y-you’re already better! You recover quickly!”

“You weren’t even that injured to begin with. I’m going to use the computer for a bit. I need to check my course registration.”

“Ah, no!”

Liliana said, waving her hands frantically. Her face seemed to have gotten even redder.

“…? Why not?”

“I-I was in the middle of a promotion match, so I came to greet you! I’ll use it right after my promotion match!”

Liliana went into the room without even waiting for my answer.

“…?”

Kyaaak, she’s crazy. She’s crazy! Udangtangtang!

What on earth is she doing?

*

“You’re really not coming?”

“…Yeah. Not really feeling it today.”

“Okay. Rest well.”

Liliana also seemed unwell, so she said she’d rest at home instead of attending class. After going through something like that, is it normal to act like this? Then again, I must be the weird one for being fine, with nothing wrong.

Friday, the last day of the weekdays.

Two days after the demon beast Felix, who had attacked Victoria Academy, was subdued by a student, I went to the academy.

“Huh? Isn’t that the kid walking by? The one who was on the news?”

“You’re Lee Hoyeon, right? It’s a real honor to be a fellow academy student!”

“Um, would you mind giving me an autograph…?”

The aftermath of catching Felix was greater than I imagined. From classmates I’d never seen before, to second-years wearing blue brooches and third-years wearing black brooches. Even seniors acted like they knew me.

It was incredibly burdensome. As an outcast, I quickly moved my feet like a ninja, heading towards the first-year dorms.

But even there, things weren’t much different.

As I opened the door to the A-Class classroom, I saw Lucy surrounded by the entire A-Class, and Lumi, looking flustered, next to her.

When I entered the classroom, a group of girls approached me.

“Hoyeon-ah! Are you okay? Is it true you caught the demon beast with Lucy?”

“Hey! It’s true, that’s why it was on the news! Don’t ask weird questions!”

“Then, can you tell us about catching the demon beast? Lucy absolutely refused….”

Lucy probably wouldn’t remember anything, so it made sense. It would be awkward for me to explain everything when Lucy couldn’t, so I had no choice but to gloss over it.

“Well, until the investigation is completely over, I’ve been ordered not to leak any information. If you keep asking like this, you guys could get into serious trouble?”

“Oh, no, that, it wasn’t intentional. Sorry!”

The female student who had been asking me about the incident startled, and ran off to a corner. The other students, hearing my words, seemed to calm down a bit, and slowly returned to their seats.

Seeing Lucy and Lumi now that the surroundings had quieted down, I slowly approached them.

“Morning, guys. Can I sit here?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Hello. Hoyeon-ssi.”

I placed my bag behind Lucy’s seat. Feeling like I was back in my original seat, a smile naturally formed on my face.

“Ahhh, starting with theory class right from the first lesson, I hate it so much!”

“Still, it’s better than practical training right after being discharged, Lucy.”

The professors at Victoria Academy are basically renowned figures in their respective fields. Many are highly reputable individuals. Therefore, according to their individual schedules, the classes change flexibly each week.

Today is Dr. Kang Hyorin’s Modern Hunter Studies.

“This is exactly when you need to move your body to recover faster. You still don’t know your Unnie well.”

Lucy looked mentally exhausted yesterday, but seeing her today, she seems to have recovered somewhat. If things went according to the original story, I wish her personality would have mellowed out a bit.

Deureureuk-

“Hello, everyone~.”

Dr. Kang Hyorin, dressed in a neat shirt and jeans. It felt like a long time since I’d last seen her.

“Today~! I’ve finally graded the exam we took last time. I was so busy, I got delayed. I’m truly sorry. But I’ll thoroughly explain the problems, so don’t worry!”

When Kang Hyorin pressed the switch with a beep-beep sound, the hologram device at the front of the lecture hall displayed the students’ grades one after another. It was a truly humiliating situation for the lower-ranked students, but since I was top-ranked, I didn’t care.

1st place: Lee Hoyeon.

2nd place: Alice.

…

“Huh?”

The student in the very front was the first to express confusion. The name that should have been in first place was in second.

“What the, Lee Hoyeon? Why are you first?”

“W-wow. Hoyeon-ssi! First place, that’s amazing!”

The two sitting in front of me also reacted. Only then did Alice, who had been looking down at her book, lift her head and look at the grades.

“…!”

Alice looked bewildered, mouth agape, staring at the grades. Then, whoosh! she turned her head and looked at me. She was biting her lip, looking quite annoyed.

What should I do? Should I wave? That probably wouldn’t work.

I just made eye contact for about two seconds, then looked away, scared.

“My, oh my, when grading the answer sheet of the top student, Lee Hoyeon, I was so surprised I checked it three times! To get all the questions right, which I expected to average around 40 points, it’s like he knows more than I do as a professor!”

The praise was nice, but hearing that would make Alice jealous.

“Now, shall we begin the explanation? To commemorate the perfect score, let’s use Lee Hoyeon’s answer sheet for the explanation!”

Ah, embarrassing. This is literally public humiliation.

Feeling my face getting hot, I lowered my head and listened to the lecture. If Liliana were here, she would have teased me relentlessly, so it was a relief she wasn’t.

*

After class, as I was packing my books, Lucy spoke to me.

“Want to have dinner together tonight?”

“Tonight?”

“Yeah!”

Definitely, she looked much better than yesterday. Yesterday, she could barely stand. Did spending a night with Lumi help her heal?

“Me? I’m always okay with that. Lumi’s coming too, right?”

“…Huh? Ah, yeah! Of course! Lumi and I are one body!”

…Did she hesitate for a moment just now? No, surely not.

“Let’s go, Lumi!”

“Uh, yeah. Let’s go together.”

We finished our meal at the Victoria Academy shopping district, and headed back to our respective dorms. Thanks to Liliana, I didn’t have financial worries, so we had a pretty decent meal.

And then, Lumi and I met again at the training ground two hours later.

“Are you okay…? You were just discharged….”

“I’m fine. I wasn’t even that injured.”

“Still….”

“Sshh. Let’s just do this quickly and quietly.”

I had decided to teach Lumi about barriers today. It was originally me who was supposed to learn, but somehow it turned out like this.

“First, you know the basics. You need to weave magic power into something solid.”

“Yeeep. I know.”

“And the will to make it solid is also important. You’re probably better at this than I am.”

“Um… I don’t really get it. Is it something like neural theory?”

“Neural theory…? I don’t know what that is, I mean the will to imbue magic power with the attribute of hardness. Since your specialty seems to be in that area, it would be good to strengthen it further.”

“…? Attribute? Will? I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

“…?”

No, I definitely learned about the will of magic power from Lumi’s barrier, so why doesn’t Lumi know about it?

“Imbuing magic power with will, you don’t know?”

“Yes, I don’t know… I’ve heard of magic power attributes, but I’ve never heard of a ‘hardness’ attribute, and ‘will’ is new too… I’m sorry I couldn’t be more helpful….”

“No, no, it’s okay.”

Even though Lumi looks like this, she’s a promising talent in Class A for first-years. If even Lumi doesn’t know, it’s safe to assume others don’t either.

‘Then again, even in the game, there was never any setting like ‘will’.’

I had assumed it was because the magic settings were vague, but maybe people in this world don’t know that magic power can hold will. Even if they could sense it, seeing that Lumi doesn’t, it’s clear that a structured system for it isn’t established.

‘Found it. A new research topic.’

I found a research topic that would be good to bring to Im Sol.

“For now, forget what I just said. I was just thinking aloud. I’ll explain later.”

“Ah, okay. I understand.”

“Should we call it a day here? We only managed about an hour, but we have time later.”

“Okay. But, uh, Ho, Hoyeon-ssi…?”

“Yeah? What’s wrong?”

Why was she squeezing her eyes shut and trembling slightly? Was she perhaps trying to confess something?

Wait, calm down. If this happens now, it’ll be a disaster?

“D-do you perhaps have time tomorrow? Want to go to that tteokbokki place we went to on the weekend? And maybe have some drinks….”

★ Heroine Status Window

[Lumi]

• [ Affection: 65 ]

• [ Lust: 78 ]

• [ Appetite: 25 ]

• [ Fatigue: 45 ]

Current Status: “Asking a guy out first, I’m crazy!”

“….”

Feeling awkward about Lumi making this proposal, I turned on the Heroine Status Window.

Something’s wrong. It’s definitely weird. Her Lust level is abnormally high.

Just saying those words, she was so nervous that Lumi’s face turned red like an apple. But that expression. That’s definitely… It looks like she’s expecting something….

In the original game, during intimacy, Lumi desperately asking for more, that expression overlaps.

‘This girl seems to remember.’

Lumi must remember what happened back then. Otherwise, there’s no way to explain that abnormal Lust level.

‘Look at this pervert, acting like this while remembering everything?’

This is no different from legally saying, “‘Please devour me.'”

I was already planning to ask her out, so if she makes the first move, it’s even better for me.

“Sure, let’s meet on the weekend.”

Plotting a sinister plan, I sent a positive reply.