Episode 467. Things Gone Wrong (2)

‘Damn….’

Hearing Lumi’s explanation, Lee Hoyeon bit his lip as he watched Lucy looking confused.

An unpleasant taste of blood spread inside his mouth, but he didn’t have time to worry about that.

‘I couldn’t have imagined it.’

To think that there would be a magic tool that could figure out his number of sexual encounters.

It was absurd enough that such a magic tool existed, but the fact that Lucy ended up using it by chance was also a problem.

It was only natural that Lucy would get her experience count wrong.

This was because Lucy’s first time occurred while she was unconscious.

The incident with the demon Felix, which happened quite some time ago now.

He was a filthy demon who had infiltrated the club and cast enchantment magic on Lucy and Lumi.

When he kidnapped Lucy, who had fallen under the enchantment, the Lucy Lee Hoyeon found had aphrodisiac magic cast on her.

Fortunately, he rescued Lucy before anything happened to her, but Lee Hoyeon’s magic at the time couldn’t remove the aphrodisiac magic Felix had cast.

‘I even had sex with Lucy secretly back then.’

In the end, at the place where Felix was defeated, he took Lucy’s first time.

He felt guilty at first, but after he and Lucy grew closer, he didn’t dwell on it.

There was never a right time to tell her, and no reason to bring it up.

It wasn’t something he had forced, and he didn’t want to stir up trouble in his relationship with Lucy by bringing it up unnecessarily.

Who knew it would come back to bite him like this.

‘I should have confessed back then….’

If he had confessed when he was hospitalized with Lucy after the incident, this wouldn’t have happened.

He treated it like no big deal, ultimately making Lucy sad.

“Lucy. Lucy… are you okay…?”

“Lumi. My head hurts….”

“Saintess, Saintess, let’s ask her again.”

“B-but she said it wasn’t…”

“….”

Lee Hoyeon pondered, his lips sealed.

He had let things get this far because he didn’t want to be the bad guy, even for a moment.

It was late, but he decided to confess honestly right now.

Lee Hoyeon immediately bowed his head and spoke.

“Lucy. I’m sorry. It’s because of me.”

“W-wha? Oh. Y-you mean it was a mistake? Did I touch you while you were sleeping?”

Lucy’s face brightened slightly.

He briefly considered letting it go like that, but he didn’t want to.

He had to tell her the truth, even if it hurt Lucy.

Lee Hoyeon continued, his expression hardening.

“No. Lucy, I’ll be honest.”

“Huh…?”

“It wasn’t while you were sleeping, but there was an encounter you don’t know about. It was when I saved you from Felix. At that time, Lucy, you had aphrodisiac magic cast on you.”

“Aphrodisiac magic?”

“Yeah. I could have reversed it now, but my skills weren’t good enough back then. In the end… I had sex with you without your consent. That’s why you have an experience you don’t know about. Lucy, you were unconscious.”

Lee Hoyeon confessed the truth calmly, bowing his head.

The only way to save Lucy was for him, as a man, to have sex with her, but it was true that he hadn’t obtained her consent.

And he had hidden that fact until now.

It was up to Lucy to decide how she felt about it from her perspective.

“S-so, Lee Hoyeon, you… did it with me while I was unconscious?”

“…Yeah. I should have confessed back then… but I hid it because I didn’t want Lucy to hate me. I’m truly sorry.”

Lee Hoyeon bowed his head as if he would smash it onto the desk.

He was prepared to accept any words, good or bad, since he had made a mistake.

If Lucy ended up hating him, he was even prepared to kneel.

However, the voice he heard was completely different.

“H-haaa… Phew. That’s a relief.”

“Lucy… You surprised me. Hoyeon-ssi, why did you hide something like that?”

Lucy let out a sigh of relief without realizing it.

What she suspected most was Felix.

She worried if that demon had defiled her body.

Although Lee Hoyeon had saved her, Lucy’s memory from that time was hazy.

It was possible that a defense mechanism she didn’t know about had activated and erased the terrible memories.

The anxiety that she had yielded her chastity to a man other than Lee Hoyeon was pressing down on her.

But if the mysterious sex encounter was with Lee Hoyeon, all the anxiety she felt disappeared.

“Uh… yeah. Sorry.”

Lee Hoyeon looked bewildered by their reactions.

Why… were they sounding relieved?

“If it was something like that, you should have just told me sooner. Why did you make me confused? You really surprised me.”

“…I’m sorry. Lucy. I didn’t mean to deceive you. I hid it because I thought you’d be shocked if I told you suddenly.”

“There’s no way I’d be shocked. It wasn’t someone else, it was you… sob.”

“L-Lucy. sob Seeing Lucy cry makes me sad too….”

“Lumi….”

Lee Hoyeon felt a strange emotion watching the twins hugging each other, sobbing.

If only they had gotten angry. If only they had slapped his cheek.

His heart might have felt a little lighter.

Lucy was happy just knowing she had kept her chastity.

But he himself….

“I’m sorry. Lucy. Lumi. For making you worry, I’m truly… sorry.”

“It’s okay. Hoyeon-ssi….”

“I wish you had told us a little sooner. Do you know how much Lumi and I worried about this?”

Lucy was smiling even while tearfully speaking.

Lee Hoyeon couldn’t look at Lucy and Lumi like that for long.

“…I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

It was hard to look at Lucy and Lumi’s faces.

Lee Hoyeon quietly bowed his head, hugging Lucy as she clung to him.

*

“Lucy. You have to hold back, even if you’re disappointed.”

“Mmm. We have sparring tomorrow, so it can’t be helped.”

After Lee Hoyeon left, Lucy and Lumi sat in the club room and talked.

In the end, they decided against sex thinking about tomorrow’s sparring, and Lee Hoyeon left quickly, saying he wasn’t feeling well.

Lucy stared blankly at the closed door and whispered softly to Lumi.

“Lumi… Did I get really angry? I wasn’t angry at all.”

“No. It’s not Lucy’s fault. Rather… umm, Hoyeon-ssi seemed a bit off today….”

“I knew it, right? He was acting strange before, but today was even worse.”

“Yeah….”

“There’s definitely something going on, but we don’t know what. Should we cheer him on or something?”

“It seems like Hoyeon-ssi might have worries we don’t know about….”

Lee Hoyeon’s reaction was definitely strange.

He had cut back on his usual pointless banter, and his conversation lacked spirit.

Of course, he had wronged Lucy, but neither Lucy nor Lumi were overly concerned.

‘It’s a bit embarrassing that I wasn’t a virgin….’

Lucy’s first time. Lee Hoyeon had lied to Lucy even though he knew it wasn’t her first time.

But it was done out of consideration for Lucy.

Lucy wasn’t angry about something like that.

“Did we do something wrong, perhaps? Lucy….”

“No. Lumi. Let’s ask Daeun for her cooperation.”

“Cooperation?”

“Daeun for now. … If that’s not enough, maybe someone else. There must be something we don’t know. Let’s ask the people we’re close to.”

“If Lucy says so, then yes. I’ll do that.”

“Let’s at least think about it, just the two of us. Maybe it’s because I was crying just now?”

“Nuh-uh. No. Hoyeon-ssi actually looked angry.”

“Then maybe it’s because I stole and ate his cake yesterday?”

“Hoyeon-ssi doesn’t really like sweets.”

Lucy and Lumi sat side-by-side in the club room, continuing their discussion about the man they liked.

*

Lee Hoyeon’s room.

• Me: Sorry for leaving first. I’m not feeling well today. See you at the sparring grounds tomorrow.

Beep beep.

After sending the message to the twins, Lee Hoyeon threw himself onto the bed.

“I guess I’ve lived a worse life than I thought.”

Lee Hoyeon muttered, reaching a hand towards the ceiling.

He had actually done quite a few bad things to Irene too, but he thought he had paid for it by getting her together with Alice.

But to think Lucy had such a wound.

“Haaa….”

If he were to make excuses, it was back when he hadn’t adapted to this world yet.

How should he put it? He was obsessed with conquering.

He thought of the heroines not as people, but as game characters.

Because of that, he focused on being more efficient. More efficient.

He acted solely with efficiency in mind, conquering the heroines.

‘…What’s the difference from now?’

If so, was he being considerate of the heroines now?

Lee Hoyeon loved all the heroines.

He wanted to give them affection equally.

He wanted to do wrong only once, and only in the fake dungeon plan.

So why did he keep feeling guilty?

He couldn’t figure out how things had turned out this way.

Lee Hoyeon continued to ponder, staring at the ceiling of the empty room, but he couldn’t find an answer no matter how much he thought about it alone.

The fake dungeon plan was the best conclusion he had reached.

Thinking any further would only give him a headache.

“…Should I get some exercise equipment? Or maybe a game console?”

The room felt empty, not like a place where someone lived.

Maybe starting a hobby would ease his headache.

Ting-

Just then, his smartwatch rang.

• Irene: You said you were coming over today. When will you get here?

…Right. I was supposed to go to Alice’s.

Originally, I planned to go right after meeting Lucy and Lumi, but my head got so complicated that I came home without realizing it.

Lee Hoyeon moved his heavy arms to send a reply.

• Me: I’ll head over now. Are you there with Irene-ssi too?

• Irene: I was going to ask if it was okay for me to be there!

“I wonder if Alice will just let it be.”

Lee Hoyeon smiled slightly.

He had forced the issue and had the threesome Irene wanted, but it seemed like it would take quite some time for Alice to fully accept the threesome.

Perhaps the fortunate thing was that Alice hadn’t changed her attitude towards Irene.

Actually, that alone was a huge outcome.

Lee Hoyeon took off his cadet uniform and changed into comfortable clothes.

Since Alice lived next door, he often visited her in comfortable clothes.

Lee Hoyeon quickly finished getting ready and left his house.

Ding-dong. Ding-dong.

Click.

He walked just a few steps before arriving at Alice’s house, and the gate opened before the bell even properly rang.

Lee Hoyeon walked past the familiar yard to the front of the mansion.

Creeeak.

As he opened the front door and went inside, he saw Irene.

She seemed to have been waiting for him there.

Her blonde hair was still radiant, but dissatisfaction could be seen in her expression.

A slightly disappointed look. It seemed things didn’t go as planned, after all.

“Irene-ssi. How did it go?”

“…She refused. She said she wants to be alone with you today.”

Irene looked down at the floor with a sad expression.

Well, he kind of expected that.

It had only been a week. Alice would need time to sort out her feelings.

Lee Hoyeon patted Irene’s shoulder as he entered the house.

“You can’t expect everything on the first try, Irene-ssi.”

“I prefer bread over rice.”

“Yes, yes. I’m heading up.”

As he smiled and started up the stairs, Irene spoke.

“…Right. I obtained the investigation rights for Victoria Academy.”

“What? Ah, you mean the matter of the black pillar.”

“Yeah. You told me to do that.”

“You did well.”

Lee Hoyeon nodded.

He knew from the news that the Iris Guild had secured the investigation rights.

They would be able to investigate the fake dungeon quickly.

“…There really is something going on, isn’t there? It’s suspicious.”

“I told you there isn’t.”

“Don’t lie.”

“Do you have any proof?”

“Proof… no, but.”

Irene, shoulders slumped, frowned as she watched Lee Hoyeon’s retreating back.

No matter how she thought about it, it was suspicious.

Lee Hoyeon wasn’t a bad guy, but maybe it would be better to investigate him anyway.

People are weaker than they seem. Even the smartest person can fall for strange temptations.

Even if she didn’t know about herself, he needed to be a stronger man to handle Alice.

Irene smacked her lips slightly and watched Lee Hoyeon going up the stairs.

‘If it was going to be like this, I should have just kept quiet from the start. Now I’ve just created unnecessary suspicion.’

Meanwhile, Lee Hoyeon thought as he left Irene’s disappointed face behind him.

Originally, he had planned to ask Irene for help with the fake dungeon plan, but summoning the black pillar to the academy made that unnecessary.

The magic circle had become too perfect.

Because of that, it unnecessarily created suspicion.

Still, perhaps thanks to connecting her with Alice, Irene didn’t show hostility towards him.

Feeling slightly better after joking around with Irene, Lee Hoyeon knocked on Alice’s room door.

“Alice. I’m coming in.”

• Yes.

Peek.

As he slightly opened Alice’s door and poked his head in, he saw Alice sitting on the sofa with wine prepared.

Judging by her sullen expression, she still seemed to be sorting out her feelings.

‘This is also because of me, so I guess I have to comfort her.’

Lee Hoyeon entered with a wry smile.