Side Story 17. The Story After (17)

“Ah….”

Lucy opened her eyes, feeling the warm sensation covering her body.

The face of the cute Lumi greeted her eyes. It seemed she had fallen asleep while hugging Lumi.

She felt a warm sensation. The two were naked, holding each other tight.

‘…How did I end up falling asleep like this?’

Lucy blinked, trying to retrace her memories.

I was definitely watching Lumi and Lee Hoyeon have sex, then got hit by a lust monster, and after that, Lumi again….

“Ah, Lee Hoyeon?”

The moment she said his name, all the memories from before falling asleep came flooding back.

It was the memory of letting out embarrassed moans, getting fucked, and eventually passing out.

Her hands and feet trembled from the embarrassment that made her face flush, but she carefully pulled herself away, just in case Lumi woke up.

“You’re awake?”

As Lucy, who had pulled away, turned her head, she saw Lee Hoyeon stretching by the table.

Lee Hoyeon yawned as if tired and looked at Lucy.

“Lee Hoyeon. You were there? If you were tired, you should’ve just stayed lying down with us!”

“We agreed to go see Professor Im Sol. I figured if we all slept together, we might not wake up.”

“Ah, right…”

Thinking back, there was such a promise. She glanced at the clock; less than 30 minutes remained.

Lucy got up, gathering her things, and gently shook Lumi.

“Lumi. Stop sleeping and wake up.”

“Ughhhh…. Haaang…. Lucy?”

Lumi, letting out a cute yawn, tilted her head while looking at Lucy.

Her memory of before falling asleep was also hazy.

“We have to go see Professor Im Sol. Lee Hoyeon is waiting too, so let’s get ready.”

“Nngh… Ah, ahh. Hoyeon-ssi. I’m sorry. I fell asleep….”

“It’s okay, so take your time waking up.”

Lumi scrambled out of bed.

Lee Hoyeon, sitting at the table, watched the two get dressed with a smile.

They both collapse like that every time after sex.

Whether it was Lucy and Lumi’s stamina or Lee Hoyeon’s libido, he decided not to dwell on it.

‘I should properly greet Sol too.’

While Lee Hoyeon was busy, Im Sol had apparently been going around the Wizard Association.

I’ll find out what happened later.

Lee Hoyeon got up from his chair and approached Lucy and Lumi as they put on their cadet uniforms.

There was something he absolutely had to do before the two put on their clothes.

“Kyaa! Lee Hoyeon! What are you doing!”

“I won’t do anything weird, I’ll just touch your breasts. Really.”

“What do you mean…! Ack!”

“Hoyeon-ssi…. Ughh.”

“It’s because I’ll miss being able to touch your bare breasts once you put your clothes on.”

Honestly, he wanted to do more, but it was almost time to meet Professor Im Sol.

As a consolation, he just touched their breasts.

*

Victoria Academy Magic Hall, 2nd Floor.

Lee Hoyeon entered Im Sol’s laboratory with the Lucy-Lumi twins.

It was his first visit in a while, but there was no awkwardness at all.

“A club? Sure. I’ll allow it.”

“You’re so cool.”

Getting permission for the club wasn’t difficult.

Knowing Im Sol’s personality, he hadn’t even considered the possibility of being rejected.

“It’s not a difficult task. But you guys will have to handle all the annoying paperwork.”

Im Sol replied without taking her eyes off the magic tool.

The part she was adjusting right now was the most crucial.

There were too many requests from the Wizard Association asking for help dealing with the remnants of the Underworld.

If she didn’t have ties with Chairman Arthur, she would have ignored them, but since Arthur-ahjussi was having a hard time, she couldn’t just dismiss it.

Still, it’s fine. If this magic tool succeeds, it can automatically bombard monsters even without a mage nearby…

Fshhhuu-

“It blew up.”

Lee Hoyeon nodded, looking at Im Sol’s smoking magic tool.

Hmm, I had a feeling it wouldn’t work.

“P-Professor, are you okay?!”

“Are you okay…?”

Lucy and Lumi approached Im Sol, startled.

Im Sol waved her hand dismissively, clearing the smoke with magic power as if it were nothing.

Failure is the mother of success. For Im Sol, a mage and researcher, failure was all too familiar.

“I’m fine. If it doesn’t work, we can just try again later. Since you guys are here, I was about to stop anyway.”

Im Sol tossed the magic tool into a corner of the lab.

When failed works are thrown like that, the assistants take them away to be disposed of.

“Let’s go to the training grounds. With Lee Hoyeon here, today should be fun.”

Lee Hoyeon followed Im Sol towards the training grounds.

It had been a while since he last saw Im Sol, but with Lucy and Lumi around, he couldn’t just hug her.

‘What a shame… I need to check if my professor has been doing well.’

Seeing her shimmering silver hair made him want to ruffle it and tease her, calling her Sol.

Still, doing that when Lucy and Lumi were present would be a bit much.

Lost in thought, he soon arrived at the training grounds.

Only then did Im Sol turn around.

She tilted her head, looking at Lee Hoyeon and the Lucy-Lumi twins.

“We’re just starting, why does everyone seem so listless?”

“…”

“We took a nap after the lecture.”

Lee Hoyeon answered instead of the twins, who avoided her gaze.

Im Sol nodded, seemingly uninterested.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. Since I’m taking time out to teach you, you better work hard when you’re learning from me. Since Hoyeon is here too, we can take turns teaching one by one.”

“Am I no longer a student?”

Why was I in a position to teach instead of learn?

I wanted to learn magic from Sol too.

However, Lee Hoyeon’s whining was immediately shut down.

“You have nothing left to learn. The reason I called you here in the first place was for you to take charge of them one by one.”

“So you planned to use me from the start.”

“Yep. While Lucy and Lumi are fun to teach, their tendencies are complete opposites, so it’s a hassle to teach them alone.”

“Hassle for your students? There’s a better phrase: ‘teaching efficiently’.”

“Let’s go with that then. Come here. Lumi.”

“Y-Yes…”

Im Sol cut off the pointless conversation and took Lumi with her.

She was very interested in Lumi’s shield magic. Talent concentrated in a specific area was always special.

She believed that by teaching her intensively, it would help her further develop her own magic.

“…Is special training always like this?”

Lee Hoyeon said, watching Im Sol and Lumi, who had immediately started their lesson.

“Pretty much. The Professor loves magic too much.”

“It must be tough for you too. Let’s take it slow.”

Perhaps teaching Lucy and Lumi was actually Im Sol’s hobby.

He couldn’t help but think that.

‘Still… it’s not like she’s beating them. Teaching them rigorously is a good thing.’

Im Sol’s special training would be something any mage would want.

Even though there were no major threats in this world anymore, there was no harm in getting stronger.

And if she’s going to teach, she should teach them properly.

Lee Hoyeon focused on Lucy’s words.

“It’s a new spell I’m creating. It’s called Hwacheonwoo, where an enormous number of fire arrows rain down on the enemy all at once.”

“Okay. Give it a try.”

Lee Hoyeon folded his arms like a professor and watched Lucy’s magic.

Hwacheonwoo.

It was definitely the spell she used during sparring with Lumi.

In his memory, it seemed very unstable.

It was highly likely she hadn’t properly conceived the magic circle or couldn’t control the amount of magic power.

“Hwacheonwoo.”

Lucy felt Lee Hoyeon’s gaze and drew the magic circle.

Fire arrows began to float up one by one above her head.

Lucy felt pleased with the stable start. She wanted to show Lee Hoyeon a proper spell.

“Lucy. If you do it like that, the magic circle will break.”

“Huh? Kya, Kyaaaaaaak!”

However, just before the magic circle could fully form.

Simultaneously with Lee Hoyeon’s warning, the magic circle Lucy was constructing began to break from the outside.

Naturally, all the fire arrows dispersed into thin air.

Lucy opened her mouth with a dejected expression.

“Ugh, why did it fail again? It was the same as when I used it on Lumi….”

“I think I know the problem. Stay still, I’ll show you.”

“Huh? Ah, sst…?”

Lee Hoyeon immediately stood behind Lucy and took hold of her arm.

The location where the magic power was concentrating was wrong from the start.

When drawing a large magic circle like this, it’s less burdensome to radiate magic power from the wrist rather than the palm.

Especially for someone small-bodied like Lucy, she needs to draw out the magic power earlier.

“Here, try concentrating the magic power around your wrist.”

“H-Here?”

“Yes. The position is right, but the speed is lacking. Try doing it faster.”

“Ah, okay.”

Lucy’s face slowly started to turn red.

This process, holding her from behind and guiding her hand to trace each magic circuit, could be seen as a lesson, but it felt more like physical intimacy.

By the time Lucy fully grasped the problem with Hwacheonwoo, her face was as red as an apple.

“You do it like this. Understand?”

Lee Hoyeon smiled and released Lucy’s arm.

It was truly perfect teaching. Wasn’t he talented as an educator too?

“Hmm?”

Lee Hoyeon felt eyes looking his way.

Unlike himself, who had just finished a perfect lesson, Lumi and Im Sol weren’t teaching but staring intently at him.

“What are you two doing instead of teaching?”

“…Student. Speaking of which, I’ve researched a new spell, want to see it?”

“Huh? Yeah, well. I don’t mind. But right now?”

A sudden magic demonstration.

Wasn’t this the time to be teaching Lucy and Lumi?

‘Or did inspiration strike just now?’

Even as Lee Hoyeon, he couldn’t fully comprehend Im Sol’s magic. Her awakened talents were beyond imagination.

Lee Hoyeon looked at Im Sol without much suspicion.

Intense magic power condensed before her hands.

‘It doesn’t seem like simple condensation and explosion… is it magic that affects space?’

Im Sol’s magic was so varied that he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what kind of spell it was yet.

Just as Lee Hoyeon was focusing more intently on the magic.

Pung-!

Im Sol’s magic power burst futilely.

An absurd mistake of blocking the magic power entering the magic circle.

No, could this even be called a mistake? She just cut off the magic power.

“…?”

Lee Hoyeon, who had been watching seriously, couldn’t hide his bewilderment and looked at Im Sol.

Im Sol clenched and unclenched her fist, saying regretfully.

“It’s difficult.”

“Huh?”

“What should I do?”

“What do you mean, ‘what should I do’? It should have just gone in, but you blew it up, Professor.”

Lee Hoyeon was genuinely dumbfounded.

Surely the great Im Sol wouldn’t fail at controlling magic power… what was she expecting from me?

“….”

“…?”

Lee Hoyeon and Im Sol quietly faced each other.

Im Sol was the first to break the uncomfortable silence, looking away.

She frowned, looked at Lee Hoyeon, then turned her head to look at Lumi.

“Ahem! Ahem. Lumi, let’s restart the lesson.”

“…Yes? Yes!”

Why is she acting like that?

Lee Hoyeon refocused on teaching Lucy.