Chapter 197 : Chapter 197

Chapter 197 - Side Story Chapter 4

The first thing to erupt was the flame created by Evangeline.

Starting with a brilliant vermilion light spreading throughout the shopping mall, a conflagration capable of easily melting even steel rebar burst out from her as the center.

“...No, this is a real waste of talent. Don’t you think so?”

Watching the disaster-like incantations pour down, Lee Si-yeong let out a dazed voice.

No, no matter what, wasn't this a bit too much to bring out in something akin to an emotional squabble?

That attack, if it hit properly, it wouldn’t be strange for this entire building to collapse.

“If you’re scared, you can back off, shorty.”

“...What did you just say?”

Lee Si-yeong’s eyes flashed menacingly.

“He might be into short girls, you know. Who are you to make fun of someone for being short? Huh? Are you trash? Are you looking down on me, thinking a girl like me will die a virgin for the rest of my life just because I'm short?!”

“...No, I don’t remember saying that much.”

Evangeline replied hesitantly. It seemed she was under a great deal of stress related to that matter on a regular basis.

However, even with her reaction, Lee Si-yeong’s anger showed no signs of abating.

“Shut up! All you bitches taller than me better not expect to walk out of here on your own two feet!”

“...I’m about the same height as Si-yeong-ssi, though?”

When Meirin raised her hand and timidly protested, Lee Si-yeong turned her still menacingly flashing eyes towards her.

The glare was so terrifying that for a moment, a hic escaped Meirin's lips as their eyes met.

“You have bigger boobs than me!”

“...Uh, I’m sorry?”

“Don’t pity me! I’ll kill you!”

“...”

What am I supposed to do?

That thought flashed through Meirin’s mind, but Lee Si-yeong, who had started to go on a rampage, seemed to have no intention of stopping.

“Every last one of you, I’ll make you all crawl on the ground right here!”

And at the same time, golden mana burst explosively from her body.

“...That crazy woman. Didn’t she just spout nonsense about wasting talent?!”

“She’s the one setting off the biggest bomb!”

Such screams erupted from all over.

Indeed, that was a wave that had clearly been steeped in the Spirit Plane.

At least, among those present here, no one other than Kim Gyu-sik would be able to properly deal with that.

“...Guild Master-nim, really! You weren’t originally like this, were you?!”

“You all deviate far from your original characters whenever it involves that man! I won’t be convinced even if I hear that from you guys who commit all sorts of crazy acts!”

Hmm, surprisingly, I have no rebuttal to that.

Seo Ah-in thought so and readily accepted it.

“...Crazy acts? Did everyone do something?”

“Ah, surprisingly, Evangeline-ssi over there once stole Kim Gyu-sik-ssi’s underwear...”

“Sh-sh-sh-shut up-!”

“...”

Meirin looked back at Evangeline, who was spewing flames with a face flushed red, with eyes of astonishment.

No, really?

Were all these people doing things like that behind his back?

“That’s just the tip of the iceberg, you know?”

“...Stop. Stop. Please. That’s TMI anymore. Please stop so I can continue to think of you all as precious comrades until the end...”

“...For people saying that, aren’t you all already having a blast beating each other up?”

Seo Ah-in, with her Mind’s Eye activated, replied as she cut down the golden waves emanating from Lee Si-yeong and the pouring conflagration with her sword.

Right. In the first place, to have a discourse on such a heartwarming relationship, even the former master-servant pair Evangeline and the Guardian were currently gritting their teeth and fighting tooth and nail.

“Hey, you, didn’t you used to hate that guy to death and get scolded by me for it?!”

“That was then, the story is a little different now!”

“So you go around stealing underwear, you pervert?! Aren’t you ashamed?!”

“Th-th-that! That’s not true...!”

Right. Like this.

It felt a little pathetic, but it also conveyed how desperate they were.

Of course, it was clear that neither side had any intention of yielding, even if they wouldn't go so far as to kill each other.

“...Well, even families fight sometimes, so. Couldn’t we just take it as that kind of bickering?”

“For people saying that, aren’t you all taking it too seriously...?”

“Actually, that’s also tru...”

Seo Ah-in, who was about to reply, suddenly shut her mouth.

The word family had suddenly reminded her of something.

“...By the way, has anyone seen my sister?”

***

“Seo Hye-in-ssi?”

“Shh. They’ll hear us.”

As Kim Gyu-sik spoke with a voice that showed he was extremely bewildered by the current situation, Seo Hye-in placed a finger on her lips, gesturing for him to be quiet.

“There’s no reason for Gyu-sik-ssi to get caught up in them fighting like that amongst themselves. Let’s just stay put until it’s over.”

“No. I understand that intention well. But is there a reason to hide in a fitting room like this...?”

Couldn’t we have just escaped outside the shopping mall?

Rather than being crammed together in such a narrow space like this.

At this, Seo Hye-in pouted her lips and lowered her gaze.

“...That’s the good part. You fool.”

“Pardon?”

“Don’t ask me again when you heard me perfectly well.”

Kim Gyu-sik awkwardly scratched the back of his neck.

In fact, from what he had observed of this person so far, she had a knack for casually saying embarrassing things in situations like this.

Especially recently, after getting entangled in ‘this kind of topic,’ that tendency seemed to have become more pronounced.

Among them were many terrifying remarks that made even Kim Gyu-sik, the person being spoken to, unable to lift his face.

It felt like that aspect could be understood even better from the topic that followed.

“By the way, Gyu-sik-ssi. Did you use perfume?”

“Uh, yes. I thought that would be better.”

“It would be better if you stopped doing that.”

“...Really? That’s a bit hurtful. I put a lot of thought into choosing this, you know.”

“No, that’s not it.”

Seo Hye-in let out a seup- ha- sigh.

From what Kim Gyu-sik had observed of her so far, he had concluded that this was a preparatory signal for loading up an incredibly embarrassing statement.

“...I, I don’t like it being covered up.”

“Pardon?”

“I like Gyu-sik-ssi’s body odor the most... is... what, I, mean.”

“...”

“...”

Kim Gyu-sik gritted his teeth and looked up at the ceiling.

No, well.

He thought that a normal man would not be strange to lose his mind in this situation.

Is this right?

Is it just his imagination that the people around him were gradually turning into perverts?

He felt like his own underwear had gone missing a few times recently too...

“Th-that wasn’t me?!”

“...So it’s a fact that someone took it.”

“...”

“...”

Seo Hye-in, with a thoroughly flushed face, fidgeted a few times.

Doing that while being pressed so close together, it was almost like they were rubbing their bodies against each other. Kim Gyu-sik also felt a strange sensation and couldn't help but shut his mouth.

“...Well, uh, wait a minute.”

And seeing that, Seo Hye-in’s eyes widened as if she had witnessed a cosmic horror.

“G-Gyu-sik-ssi. Are you... blushing right now?”

“...Pardon?”

“N-no way. Th-this person? No, but to say it’s not, your face is somehow strangely red right now...”

“...”

A deep sigh escaped Kim Gyu-sik’s lips as he looked at the rambling Seo Hye-in.

“...It’s not like I have a problem with one of my functions. If a charming person like Hye-in-ssi is acting like that, of course I’ll be embarrassed.”

“...”

Seo Hye-in’s eyes widened as she looked up at Kim Gyu-sik for a moment.

Just like that, without a word.

She just kept staring without a word.

It was a silence that lasted so long that Kim Gyu-sik, who had spoken, felt almost anxious.

“...Seo Hye-in-ssi?”

“...If you say it like that, it’s really, hard to hold back.”

“Pardon?”

No, let me correct myself.

It wasn't that she was just silent; it seemed that a gradual change had been occurring in her body during that time.

Her body temperature was strangely high. Her breathing was also very ragged. Her heart rate seemed to be incredibly high.

And above all, a flushed look was melted into her expression and actions to the point where even the air in the fitting room was mixed with a sweet scent.

“...No, no, wait a minute.”

Kim Gyu-sik opened his mouth with a sense of some terrifying crisis, but it was clear that Seo Hye-in could no longer hear him.

If before she was just pressing her body against his, now she was actively clinging to him. Her arms wrapped around his neck.

Due to the height difference, Seo Hye-in, who had buried her face in Kim Gyu-sik’s neck, took a deep breath, seueup-. As if trying to smell his scent with all her might.

“Come to think of it, Ah-in is a meticulous child, but she can be clumsy at times.”

“Pardon?”

“Gyu-sik-ssi, you said you had to make a family, didn’t you?”

“...That is, true.”

“Then you shouldn’t use protective gear.”

What is she talking about.

What on earth is she talking about.

Such questions blossomed in Kim Gyu-sik’s mind, but Seo Hye-in, who was now hugging him tightly, let out a few breaths onto his neck.

She was so excited that her breath, which contained a hot heat that reached even her earlobes, continued to rise.

“...So, should we just make one? I feel a little sorry for Ah-in. But I, right now, honestly. It’s very hard to hold back...”

“Right. It’s hard for me to hold back too.”

The last sentence was not answered by Kim Gyu-sik.

When the startled Seo Hye-in quickly turned around, there was Seo Ah-in with narrowed eyes, having thrown open the fitting room door.

“...”

“...”

“...”

An awkward silence among the three fell heavily around them.

Seo Hye-in, who had hastily moved away from Kim Gyu-sik, looked back and forth between him, Seo Ah-in, and her own reflection in the mirror, which clearly looked half-insane.

Inside her brain, what she had just done was replaying over and over.

And when she even realized that her younger sister had caught her in the act.

“...Uu.”

“Uu?”

“Uu, heueuk, heueuk, n-now, I really can’t get married... the only one who’ll have me is Gyu-sik-ssi...”

She started to cry.

A grown maiden. Crying her eyes out without caring about the gazes of others.

“...”

“...”

Kim Gyu-sik and Seo Ah-in, who hadn’t expected such a reaction, fell silent at the same time.

No, um.

So.

“...But wasn’t he the only answer for marriage from the beginning?”

“Be quiet for now.”

While Kim Gyu-sik quietly silenced Seo Ah-in’s words, only the sound of Seo Hye-in’s sobbing echoed grandly around them.

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