Chapter 44

### Chapter 44: Lumi Strategy

Lucy's face turned as red as boiling lava.

"You, you... saw everything...? Then, could it be...?"

"Just a moment. Wait, Lucy. Wait! Don't get up! You're a patient right now!"

"Tell me clearly. Did you do anything strange to me or not? I, I can't take it anymore, you know?"

Magic power was emanating from Lucy's body.

This is really dangerous. I quickly continued.

"Lucy, calm down and listen to me first."

"But my stomach... no, more precisely, the area below my stomach..."

Lucy blushed and looked at me, as if begging for a proper explanation.

"I reversed the aphrodisiac spell that was cast on you. I don't know much about women's bodies, but that feeling is likely a side effect of the aphrodisiac."

"Reverse? Lie! How could you reverse it? That's an incredibly advanced technique!"

"I'll prove it. Remember when we learn barrier removal in next week's magic analysis class? I'll show you then. Will you believe me then?"

"...Yeah. But if you can't... no, please do it... it would be better that way."

"Professor Im Sol was there too. Nothing really happened, okay? If you're worried, you can ask her."

"Okay... I believe you."

Lucy seemed to calm down when I mentioned Professor Im Sol.

Seeing her relieved without realizing that her hymen was gone, well... I guess I'm a bit excited.

If it gets exposed, I'll strongly claim it was a rescue operation, so I'm innocent.

In an era where artificial respiration can be considered sexual harassment, I don't know if that will work, but...

'At least I got through it.'

Lucy's expression brightened up.

"Oh, right. I need to tell the doctor you're awake."

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

The nurse came in, saw that Lucy was awake, and left to fetch the doctor.

"Good timing. The results of the magic infection test will be out soon. Of course, it seems unlikely given that you're up and about."

The doctor came in, did a quick examination, and said the test results would be out soon.

As expected, the results were normal.

We immediately started the discharge procedures after confirming the results.

"Um, how about we grab some food together?"

Lucy said as soon as we left the hospital.

"Are you sure? You look tired."

Anyone could see that Lucy looked exhausted. After what she went through, it was natural that she wouldn't be fine.

"Still! I can eat!"

"Go home and rest. I forgot to call Lumi because we checked out so quickly. She was really worried."

"Oh, oh! Right, Lumi! I need to see Lumi! Let's eat next time! Sorry!"

Lucy's face turned pale, and she hurriedly ran towards the girls' dormitory.

Lumi's worry seems more important to her than eating with me.

Well, they are twins, after all.

I headed to my dormitory.

Is Lilia taking good care of the house?

She's beautiful, makes good money, and is generally great, but it's annoying when she gets aroused and starts acting up when she sees me having sex.

Maybe I should just not bring her around. But then she might cause some trouble.

'What a mess. This is what I get for being scammed into a hellish contract.'

Still, she makes good money. I recently saw a post about the daily earnings of a new female streamer at the academy, and I don't think I need to worry about the cost of maintaining Lilia.

Her maintenance costs are a bit over ten million won a month, but she earns in the millions daily.

This is like a money-printing machine. Lilia is shoveling money at me.

'Ah, I should check the dungeon training schedule again.'

I checked it once, but I need to make sure there are no changes.

Lost in thought, I arrived at the dormitory.

Ding!

I placed my smartwatch on the door lock, opened the door, and went in.

The dormitory was dark and quiet. Lilia was nowhere to be seen.

"Is she broadcasting in her room? No, I'm sure it was off when I came in."

Creak. Bang! Thud! Thud! Thud!

While taking off my shoes, I heard the door open and close, and Lilia ran towards me.

"Haa, haa, haa... hurry up."

Her disheveled sweatpants and flushed face.

Is she sick?

"Hmm. Yeah."

"You, you're already better! You recovered fast!"

"I wasn't really hurt. I'll use the computer for a bit. I need to check my course registration."

"No, no!"

Lilia waved her hands frantically. Her face seemed even redder.

"...? Why not?"

"W, well. I was in the middle of a level-up battle! I'll only use it for that!"

Lilia went into the room without waiting for my answer.

"...?"

Screaming, she's crazy! Crazy!

What is she doing?

*

"Are you really not coming?"

"...Yeah. Not today."

"Okay. Rest well."

Lilia also seemed unwell and said she would stay home and rest.

Is that a normal reaction after what happened?

Well, I guess I'm the odd one out.

It's Friday, the last day of the week.

Two days after the mage Felix was subdued by a student at Victoria Academy, I went to the academy.

"Hey, isn't that the kid from the news?"

"You're Lee Ho-yeon, right? It's an honor to be in the same academy!"

"Hey, can I get an autograph...?"

The impact of catching Felix was greater than I expected.

From first-year students I didn't know, to second-year students with blue badges and third-year students with black badges, even seniors recognized me.

It's quite overwhelming. As a loner, I quickly moved my feet like a ninja and headed to the first-year dormitory.

But it wasn't much different there.

When I opened the door to A-class, I saw Lucy surrounded by the entire class, and Lumi standing beside her, looking at a loss.

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

"Ho-yeon! Are you okay? Is it true you caught the mage with Lucy?"

"Hey! It's true, that's why it was on the news! Don't ask weird questions!"

"Can you tell us about catching the mage? Lucy says she can't..."

Lucy wouldn't remember anything, so it's natural.

Since Lucy couldn't speak, it would be strange for me to explain everything, so I had to dodge the questions.

"Well, we received a non-disclosure order until the investigation is completely over. If you keep asking, you might get into trouble."

"Oh, no, I didn't mean to. Sorry!"

The female student who was asking about the incident was startled and ran to the corner.

The other students also calmed down and slowly returned to their seats.

I slowly approached Lucy and Lumi, who were now in a quieter environment.

"Good morning, guys. Can I sit here?"

"Sure, of course."

"Hello, Ho-yeon."

I put my bag behind Lucy's seat.

I couldn't help but smile, feeling like I was back in my usual spot.

"Ah, I hate theory classes from the start!"

"At least it's better than practical training right after being discharged. Lucy."

The professors at Victoria Academy are generally well-respected in their fields, so their schedules are flexible and change weekly.

Today, we have Modern Hunter Studies with Dr. Kang Hyo-rin.

"Hello, everyone~."

Dr. Kang Hyo-rin, wearing a neat shirt and jeans, appeared. It's been a while since I last saw her.

"Today! I finally graded the test we took last time. It took a while because I had a lot to do. I'm really sorry. But I'll explain the answers in detail, so don't worry!"

As Dr. Kang Hyo-rin pressed the button, the hologram device in front of the classroom displayed the students' scores.

It's a humiliating situation for the lower-ranked students, but I'm in the top tier, so it doesn't bother me.

1st place: Lee Ho-yeon.

2nd place: Ellis.

...

"Huh?"

The student at the front was the first to express confusion.

Because the name that should have been in first place was in second.

"What, Lee Ho-yeon? Why are you first?"

"Wow, Ho-yeon! First place, that's amazing!"

The two in front of me also reacted.

Only then did Ellis, who had been looking down at her book, raise her head to look at the scores.

"...!?"

Ellis's mouth opened in a "huh?" expression as she looked at the scores.

Then, she quickly turned her head to look at me.

She was biting her lip, looking a bit angry.

What should I do? Should I wave? Probably not.

I just made eye contact for two seconds before looking away, feeling scared.

"Wow, I was so surprised when I graded Lee Ho-yeon's test that I did it three times. To get all the questions right when I expected an average of 40 points, it seems like you know more than I do as a professor."

Dr. Kang Hyo-rin said some very uncomfortable things.

Praise is good, but saying this will make Ellis jealous.

"Okay, let's go over the answers. As a celebration of the perfect score, let's use Lee Ho-yeon's test as the example!"

Ah, embarrassing. This is really public humiliation.

My face felt hot, so I bowed my head and listened to the class.

If Lilia were here, she would have teased me a lot, but it's a relief she's not.

*

After class, as I was gathering my books, Lucy approached me.

"Want to have dinner together tonight?"

"Tonight?"

"Yeah!"

Clearly, she's much better than yesterday. She looked like she could barely stand yesterday. Did spending the night with Lumi help her heal?

"I'm fine anytime. Is Lumi coming too?"

"...Huh? Oh, yeah! Of course! Lucy and Lumi are one!"

... She seemed to hesitate for a moment. Maybe not?

"Let's go, Lumi!"

"Uh, yeah. Let's go together."

We finished our meal at the Victoria Academy commercial area and returned to our respective dormitories.

Thanks to Lilia, I don't have to worry about finances, so we had a pretty good meal.

Then, Lumi and I met at the training ground two hours later.

"Are you okay...? You were just discharged..."

"I'm fine. I wasn't really hurt."

"Still..."

"Shh. Be quiet and let's do it quickly."

I decided to teach Lumi the barrier today.

Initially, I was supposed to learn it, but it ended up like this somehow.

"First, you know the basics. You need to weave mana to make it solid."

"Yep. I know that."

"Also, the will to make it solid is important. You might be better at this than me."

"Um, I don't know. Is it like neurology?"

"Neurology...? I don't know what that is, but I mean the will to imbue solidity into mana. Since your specialty is in that area, it would be good to strengthen it."

"...? Solidity? Will? I don't understand what you're saying."

"...?"

But I clearly learned about the will in Lumi's barrier. Why doesn't she know about it?

"Do you not know about imbuing will into mana?"

"Yes, I don't... I've heard of mana attributes, but not solidity, and this is the first time I've heard of will... I'm sorry I can't help..."

"No, no, it's okay."

Lumi is a promising student in the first-year A-class. If she doesn't know, others probably don't either.

'Well, in the game, there was no such setting as will.'

I thought I had glossed over the magic settings, but maybe people in this world don't know that you can imbue will into mana.

Even if they have a sense of it, from Lumi's reaction, it seems there's no established system.

'I found it. A new research topic.'

I found a good research topic to bring to Im Sol.

"For now, forget what I just said. I was just thinking out loud. I'll explain it later."

"Ah, okay. I understand."

"Let's stop here for today. We only had about an hour, but we have time."

"Okay. But, Ho-yeon...?"

"What? What's wrong?"

Why are you closing your eyes tightly and trembling? Are you going to confess or something?

Hold on, calm down. This could be a big problem if you do it now.

"Um, maybe. Do you have time tomorrow? We can go to the tteokbokki place we went to last weekend and have a drink..."

★ Heroine Status Window

– [Affection: 65]

– [Libido: 78]

– [Appetite: 25]

– [Fatigue: 45]

Current Status: Asking a guy out on a date? I must be crazy!

"..."

Feeling awkward about Lumi's proposal, I opened the heroine status window.

This is strange. Definitely strange. Her libido is abnormally high.

How tense must she have been to say that, with her face as red as an apple.

But that expression. It's definitely... an expression of expectation...

It overlaps with the expression Lumi made in the original game when she desperately asked for more during a relationship.

'She remembers that incident.'

Lumi clearly remembers that incident. Otherwise, there's no way to explain her abnormally high libido.

'This pervert, remembering everything and acting like this...'

This is legally the same as saying "Please eat me."

I was already planning to ask her out, so it's better that she came to me.

"Sure, let's meet on the weekend."

I gave a positive answer while formulating a sinister plan.