Episode 470. Practical Sparring

While Irene was having an important conversation at Lee Hoyeon’s house.

Lee Hoyeon, who had been standing in front of Alice’s room, carefully entered.

‘She’s still pretty even after all this time.’

Pretty women are cute even when they’re sulking.

Lee Hoyeon looked at the pouting Alice and opened his mouth.

“Alice. Have you been well?”

“Yeah. You’re later than I thought.”

“Sorry. I had some business to attend to.”

“You were just playing with some other woman anyway.”

Lee Hoyeon smiled and walked into the room.

Alice, still grumbling, poured wine into a new glass and placed it on the seat in front of her.

‘Does she want me to sit here?’

The atmosphere was awkward. I didn’t know what to say.

Lee Hoyeon felt like he was being called in for a scolding, so he meekly sat down in the seat opposite Alice.

Alice pushed the wine glass towards Lee Hoyeon.

“Drink.”

“Yes, sir.”

Gulp.

As he lifted the wine glass, the sweet scent of fruit tickled his nose.

‘This is good.’

The wine, coating his mouth smoothly, slid down his throat gently.

Of course, he wasn’t an expert, so he couldn’t judge how exceptional it was, but it seemed like an expensive wine.

Alice opened her mouth the moment Lee Hoyeon swallowed the wine.

“How is it?”

“It’s incredibly delicious. Sweet and smooth.”

“Is that all?”

“Hmm….”

What kind of reaction was she looking for?

Lee Hoyeon checked Alice’s status window while twirling the wine glass with his hand.

★ Heroine Status Window

[Alice]

• [ Affection: 95 ] (+1.1)

• [ Lust: 70 ]

• [ Appetite: 30 ]

• [ Fatigue: 50 ]

Current Status: I went to the trouble of preparing her favorite wine. Why isn’t she reacting? …Did her preferences change in the meantime?

‘Favorite wine?’

Lee Hoyeon quickly racked his brain.

Fortunately, as he recalled their conversations about wine one by one, he quickly remembered.

‘We definitely had that conversation.’

When choosing conversation topics that suited Alice’s hobbies, they had also talked about wine.

When asked about her favorite wine, he had mentioned a name he’d heard somewhere.

Apparently, she remembered it, thankfully.

Lee Hoyeon smiled, holding the wine glass as if amazed.

“By the way, this is my favorite wine, did you know? Did I mention it?”

“No. It’s a coincidence.”

“Ah. I see. I thought maybe you prepared it on purpose.”

“…Why would I do something nice for someone like you.”

Alice crossed her legs, turned her head, and drank her wine.

Just in case, she had noted down the wine he said he liked, and thankfully, she wasn’t wrong.

‘Does he even know how much trouble I went through to get this?’

Since it had been a week since she last saw Lee Hoyeon, she had prepared something.

She hounded Sebastian to check every liquor store, and that wasn’t enough, so she searched extensively herself.

She felt she deserved at least this much of a reaction.

Gulp.

Lee Hoyeon sipped his wine, glancing at Alice.

Still, seeing that she even prepared this much, it seemed she wasn’t too upset.

‘Maybe I should try saying something.’

He glanced down and saw a cute rabbit-shaped apple on the table instead of a snack.

Maybe wine is meant to be enjoyed with fruit?

“Did you cut this?”

“No. Unnie did.”

“Ah…”

Come to think of it, Irene had cut apples for him when he was hospitalized last time.

She’s a strange person, good at cutting apples if nothing else.

Lee Hoyeon brought up Irene, who had just come out.

“I ran into Irene-ssi at the entrance, and she didn’t look happy.”

“…It’s because of you.”

“Me?”

“You made things weird between Unnie and me. We were so close. Haa….”

Alice let out a sigh filled with frustration and regret.

Of course, it wasn’t all Lee Hoyeon’s fault.

Irene’s feelings must have been the same even before meeting Lee Hoyeon.

But… it was true that Lee Hoyeon’s existence had complicated things.

“I’m sorry, Alice. But I had my reasons. You know this, Alice.”

“…Does this have something to do with that curse?”

“There’s no reason for it to be unrelated. What if you end up hating me….”

Even for Lee Hoyeon, he had no intention of saying something like ‘You liked it too’ in this situation.

Fortunately, Alice could understand his situation somewhat, so he could mix in a certain amount of truth.

Lee Hoyeon bowed his head and apologized to Alice.

“Then I understand… No, I’m still annoyed.”

“Okay. Hit me until you feel better. I’ll take it.”

“I’m not going to hit you. And if you were really sorry, you should have come to apologize.”

“Since you weren’t answering my calls, I thought you were really mad.”

“Haa….”

Alice looked at the frustrating man’s face, shook her head, and let out a deep sigh.

How does he keep attracting women when he’s so clueless about their feelings?

She just couldn’t understand.

Swish.

Alice, who had been shaking her head, turned it as she felt a touch on her shoulder.

Lee Hoyeon had gotten up from his seat and come up behind her, massaging her shoulder.

“What?”

“Just wanted to give your shoulders a rub after so long. Did you prepare for tomorrow’s sparring? Who are you fighting?”

“Doctor Kang Hyorin.”

“The head of the Korean branch is participating too.”

“She probably insisted on fighting me herself. She’s a weird person.”

Lee Hoyeon continued the conversation while massaging Alice’s shoulder.

He had checked the sparring list, of course, but practical sparring was a good topic for conversation.

“Speaking of which, I heard a lot of reporters are coming tomorrow too.”

“It’s the first time the Academy is holding an event like this. Since points are on the line for this sparring match, they can see the cadets’ fighting power when they go all out.”

“So it has quite a bit of significance.”

“Mhmm. Um….”

Alice felt the massage getting deeper and turned her head slightly.

Lee Hoyeon was behind her, letting out a wry chuckle.

“Those aren’t the eyes of someone who was apologizing just moments ago.”

“I’m doing it more diligently because I’m sorry. You used to get massages like this often, remember?”

“…Yeah.”

Alice and Lee Hoyeon’s relationship had deepened further since the first massage.

They had been intimate many times since then, but massages became rare after Alice’s congenital mana disorder was cured.

“Ughh…?”

“You liked it here back then too, and it’s the same now.”

“D-Don’t think you can forgive your mistakes just because of this. Okay?”

“Of course not. I’m just doing this because I’m sorry, so don’t worry about it. Speaking of which, what time did Irene-ssi say she’d be back?”

“…Unnie isn’t coming. She said she wanted to be alone with you today.”

“Then we have plenty of time.”

“Mhmm, hngh….”

Alice felt her body tremble at Lee Hoyeon’s touch.

A sensation she hadn’t felt in a long time.

Her entire body was reacting to Lee Hoyeon’s touch.

‘…I shouldn’t be like this.’

Alice relaxed her body and slowly closed her eyes.

*

Pandemic Headquarters.

Maestro’s living space was always quiet and dark.

However, now that the fourth Apostle had been summoned, the atmosphere was completely different from before.

“Ho ho… Is this a human transformed into a beast form? Doesn’t look very tasty.”

“Gkk, ughhh….”

It was a monster he’d never seen before.

It was the strangest-looking monster he had seen so far, more than enough to pique Lucifer’s interest.

But perhaps because it was too ugly? He failed to control his strength.

Squish. Crunch.

Lucifer tore off the monster’s head, glanced at the corpse for a moment, and then released the strength in his hand.

The corpse fell limply to the floor, and Lucifer, losing interest, wiped the blood from his hands and looked at the human sitting there.

The human kneeling before a statue, which was the manifestation of an animal claiming to be a devil.

To him, a real devil, it didn’t look demonic at all.

Lucifer spoke to Maestro, who was praying.

“Are you still waiting for that so-called revelation?”

“…Yes. A revelation just came down.”

“Receiving revelations from a blank statue… truly astonishing.”

Maestro looked down at the dead monster and called another waiting monster to clear the corpse.

It had always been like this since Apostle Lucifer appeared.

His brainwashing techniques didn’t work on him.

Of course, since he was summoned by Maestro’s magic, there was some coercive power, but he couldn’t stop Lucifer’s occasional actions driven purely by interest.

“The revelation is to cooperate with you, Apostle, and advance the ‘Fairy Tale of Hell’.”

“That makes sense. I can feel hell’s mana from the pillars in this world. So the reason I came to the human world is indeed the revival of hell?”

“And… it also said to help you, Apostle, and kill this man.”

“This?”

Maestro handed Lucifer the information about the individual.

It was a file containing organized information about one man.

Lee Hoyeon.

He was someone with a different destiny than himself, whose fate was to summon the Demon King and destroy Earth.

Maestro felt an uneasy emotion as he watched Lucifer review the file.

…Revelations like this had never come down before.

It wasn’t because of the Demon King that he realized the man shared the same destiny.

His heart started pounding the moment he encountered a power that disregarded his abilities.

Even his confident attitude, different from other humans.

It was all information Maestro had discovered himself.

Communication with the Demon King was one-way, so he couldn’t relay the information he knew.

The Demon King shouldn’t know that he had met Lee Hoyeon.

But today, the Demon King had issued a revelation directly.

‘Help Lucifer and kill Lee Hoyeon.’

That revelation was different from any before-alien and suspicious.

He had only wanted to be summoned to Earth, not to kill a specific someone.

Revelations were merely meant to guide the direction of important matters.

This revelation was far too specific.

Maestro felt distrust towards the revelation that had come down after so long.

‘What a pitiful human.’

Lucifer activated his demonic eyes.

The human before him was no ordinary being either.

His demonic eyes reacted, yet there were parts they couldn’t see.

Especially that brainwashing ability was incredibly unique. For a human, it was indeed extraordinary.

However, Lucifer could perfectly read his emotions.

He lacked conviction in his actions. He seemed like a puppet forced to move, unable to escape.

He couldn’t help but think of him as a pitiful human.

“This is also quite… interesting.”

Lucifer took his eyes off Maestro and frowned while watching the video clip of Lee Hoyeon.

“You said killing this human was the Demon King’s revelation?”

“Yes. That is correct.”

“The Demon King… the Demon King.”

Lucifer chuckled.

His father, the Demon King of Hell, was still holed up in the Demon King’s castle.

He had used all his mana to seal the Demon King’s castle.

He wouldn’t have the energy to send revelations to the human world.

‘Just who could it be.’

The one who sent him to the human world and is sending revelations claiming to be the Demon King.

He was curious about his identity.

“Hmm….”

Lucifer stopped pondering and checked the video of Lee Hoyeon again.

While he was curious about the so-called Demon King who sent him here, he was equally intrigued by this human named Lee Hoyeon.

‘It’s the same sensation as back then.’

He couldn’t see anything.

When he saw the Demon King’s castle shrouded in unknown mana.

Lucifer felt his demonic eyes become powerless for the first time.

Yet, he felt the same sensation from this insignificant human.

He thought he came to the human world for the ‘Fairy Tale of Hell’, but seeing this human changed his mind.

This human named Lee Hoyeon, whom he couldn’t see anything of. He seemed to hold a secret, similar to the unknown ‘Demon King’.

“Alright. Let’s head out immediately. Did you say it was the Academy?”

Hell has educational institutions too.

Human educational institutions must have even more interesting things.

Perhaps he might even find traces of his siblings.