Tsuchimikado Ren.
There was something familiar about that face.
A shrine maiden outfit that, in Korea, looked like nothing more than cosplay.
Meticulously maintained, her bodily curves were slender overall yet wound sharply.
Black hair like silk thread and characteristic golden eyes.
In many ways, her appearance embodied that of a traditional elite—it was not something easily forgotten.
"Playing around from our first meeting? It was practically yesterday that you were torn to pieces by my hand."
"I knew from the start that the Korean Academy was extreme. More importantly, my hand… won’t you take it?"
"How am I supposed to hold it when you’re suddenly asking me to become your fiancé?"
She was one of the fellow freshmen who had been ripped apart by the Spatial Severing I had unleashed during the freshman representative selection battle.
Even while facing Choi Tae-seong, that face—which drew attention even among the bustling crowd of freshmen—had remained in a corner of my memory.
"I don’t know what your goal is, but I’ll refuse without hearing you out. Getting entangled with prestigious clans is nothing but a burden now."
Pushing a marriage proposal without even showing me the terms—it was so unconventional that there were bound to be troublesome circumstances involved.
Moreover, the Tsuchimikado clan was known as the descendants of the legendary onmyoji, Abe no Seimei.
A prestigious clan standing at the pinnacle within Japan.
If she was a talent who had come all the way here to study abroad, she probably held quite an important position even among the direct line.
Otherworld, magic, shaman arts, Academy, Gongmyeongdang, Hwanseong Group.
I already had more than enough to worry about, so I deliberately did not take her hand and took a step back.
"…You are a more difficult person than I thought. Then I’m in a bind too."
Ren lowered the corners of her eyes as if saddened, then closed the widening distance without hesitation, taking two steps forward.
Then, as she rather forcefully clasped my right hand with both of hers, a naked determination not to let me go was blatantly revealed.
"I have no intention of actually going through with marriage. If I must put it into words, it’s a sham engagement. I promise this is a story that holds no loss for you."
"A sham engagement…?"
So the proposal had never been sincere from the start.
My nose, which had been about to rise slightly, promptly returned to its original position.
Her looks, which were in no way inferior to my master Estella, a high elf, and her status as a member of a prestigious clan.
It was enough to make me feel pathetic about how my heart had briefly fluttered.
I should have known.
A woman like her would never approach without some calculation.
Just as my motivation to continue the conversation was about to break under a strange sense of emptiness.
Ren carefully surveyed her surroundings and let a piece of information slip from her lips.
"…The movements of the Hwanseong Group are unusual. If it’s information analyzed by the Tsuchimikado, couldn’t I receive a moment of your time?"
She was skilled at actively utilizing her appearance and status while also casting the bait of information.
The way she looked up at me fixedly, and the changes in her expression that seemed pitiful.
I could tell that everything was a calculated act right now, yet somehow she felt like a fox I couldn’t bring myself to hate.
"…If it’s just listening."
She was offering information on the Hwanseong Group for free—to the point that I felt it wouldn’t hurt to play along a little.
***
The place I entered under her guidance was a luxurious cafe with private rooms.
Fitting for a meeting with a Japanese person, two cups of green tea lattes were steaming on the table.
"By the way, the Academy system in Korea is innovative. To think all lectures are open to optional attendance. Thanks to that, I was able to claim a seat with you before anyone else?"
"After all, the main shaman arts you’ll use are each clan’s secret traditions. It’s efficient, that’s all."
A typical shaman usually possessed no more than three shaman arts.
One main shaman art like a clan’s secret tradition, and about two general-purpose shaman arts used as sub-weapons.
The studies conducted at the Academy, which only possessed general-purpose arts, were heavily skewed toward basic theory, so their importance was low.
Most finished early education within their own clans before coming here.
Unless one was a special case like me, whose purpose was to convey knowledge to Estella, there would be few shamans who attended lectures without missing any.
"More than that, I want to hear why you approached me."
"…Others are treating you like a plague, so I thought this might be an opportunity. Students like me who study abroad are disconnected from Korea’s power structure."
By leaking the Void Mantra Technique, becoming hostile with the Hwanseong Group was practically a certainty.
If it were just Gongmyeongdang, I wouldn’t have cared, but the Hwanseong Group was a prestigious clan.
There would be no one rash enough to approach while bearing such disadvantages.
But what about a prestigious clan from abroad, like the Tsuchimikado?
"I hold you in high regard. Even if you’ve become an unaffiliated who lacks a secret tradition, there is the genius of having improved the Void Mantra Technique yourself. And I’ve investigated the ten years of confinement as well. What could be the price that such a genius paid by selling his future?"
"Going by your words alone, I’d be prime husband material."
"Hmm… not quite prime, though? Deductions for personality. Unraveling a clan’s secret tradition so unconventionally was too much."
Quite a harsh evaluation. I frowned without realizing it.
Even though I had received direct murder threats, to think that was her evaluation.
Well, there were plenty of people who detested whistleblowers for the public good.
Such must be the social law for a private avenger.
"Furthermore, major deductions for being in such great conflict with the Hwanseong Group. Few clans would take in trouble just because someone is capable right now. Even among the foreign students, opinions on you are divided."
"That can’t be helped. I can’t just lie down and die."
It was endlessly irritating how she listed deduction after deduction with a bright smile.
If someone had tried to recruit me with such half-hearted intentions, I would have refused too.
Private vengeance held value only when accomplished alone.
If factors other than my own strength replaced or contributed to the revenge, it could not help but be that much more hollow.
"So? The reason the Tsuchimikado chose me? Since you called it a sham engagement, is this Ren’s own decision?"
"Telling a lie to someone who has been betrayed must be the thing to avoid most."
Ren immediately wiped away the faint smile that had never left her face and put on a stiff, expressionless mask.
The sycophantic atmosphere vanished completely, leaving only firm resolve.
"Do you know the purpose of the exchange students?"
"Isn’t it similar to other schools. As part of multicultural exchange, acquiring specialized knowledge. …And alliances between shaman clans."
"As you know, there is another purpose separate from those."
She slowly spat out that purpose as if vomiting it in a low, sunken voice.
"A honey trap to steal the secret traditions and bloodlines of other nations. If you seduce and take away a clan’s direct descendant, it’s no different from having everything that clan holds in the palm of your hand."
"Back in the day, bride kidnappings were common too, I hear."
"They might still be happening now."
Gloomy eyes completely opposite of her first impression. In our locked gaze, the only thing readable was that she did not find that reality agreeable.
"I’m beautiful, aren’t I?"
"…What are you on about all of a sudden?"
"Objectively speaking, I can be called prime bride material. Face, figure, refinement, knowledge, power. My everything was created to stimulate someone’s desire to possess."
Ren muttered self-mockingly and, as if finding it repulsive, crudely gripped the heavy flesh of her chest as if to blatantly display it.
"A peerless beauty. Like a woman who brings down a nation with her looks alone, seeking out and devouring a man capable of betraying his clan. That is the duty the Tsuchimikado has assigned me."
"…That’s more hardcore than I thought."
"Though successful cases can be counted on one hand even looking back over the hundreds of years the clan has lasted."
But even with such slim odds, Ren had been thoroughly raised for it.
Now that I looked closely, I couldn’t find a blemish the size of a speck of dust.
From appearance alone, she was a Yamato Nadeshiko who seemed to embody the dreams of men.
Her body curved sharply like an exaggeratedly drawn 2D character, and even trivial parts like fingernails or eyelashes felt thoroughly managed.
It hadn’t been for nothing that I compared her to an elf.
"I don’t want to waste my life on a duty with such a slim success rate. Even if I were to succeed, I have no intention of falling into becoming a baby-making machine for the clan."
"…Then isn’t coming to me—a wrong choice? I’m unaffiliated, with no clan. I have no secret tradition or bloodline to hand over."
Her ambition was admirable, but ultimately it had nothing to do with me.
She said there would be no disadvantages, but wouldn’t I just end up receiving needless interference instead?
"You only need to pretend. Deceiving the clan is my role. Even if I look like this, this is a body thoroughly educated to maintain competence. I have plenty of plausible excuses."
Ren seemed to think success was at hand, and a smile formed at her lips once more.
Naturally crossing her legs, twisting her waist, and slightly exposing the front of her chest.
"The conditions are simple. The deadline is until graduation from the Academy. As long as we don’t fall in love with each other, we won’t actually marry. The reward is the power of the Tsuchimikado clan that I can draw upon. …And if it’s just a little, you may enjoy my body as well?"
My answer reflexively popped out.
"No thanks."
"Eh."
"Forget that, just spill the information on the Hwanseong Group."
No matter how thoroughly ingrained her seduction techniques were, after enduring lust for ten years while watching over Estella, did she take me for a man ruled by his lower half?
For the fiancée decided for me since I was adopted into Gongmyeongdang, and to fulfill my moral duty.
I was one who had pushed away my master, who approached me innocently, with the iron discipline of a commander.
…If I had known Gong Seo-yul would betray me, I would have made her my principal wife long ago.
By now, her inner arts were far too lacking to catch me in a honey trap.
***
Tsuchimikado Ren, with a blank expression, handed over some prepared documents, and the moment I received them, I left my seat.
Even though she tried desperately to stop me, I consistently ignored her. There was insufficient reason to strike a deal with her.
My revenge plan had been improvised from the start. The policy was to smash down anything that came at me.
If I blocked the Hwanseong Group with Tsuchimikado’s power, wouldn’t it just result in a boring stalemate?
How long did I have left in life? I had no intention of devoting years to a petty revenge.
Still, thinking it was a bit of a shame to let her body go to waste, I arrived at the dormitory.
In front of the main gate, there was someone waiting for me.
"…Gong Si-woo."
The cracked voice was somehow familiar.
Her attire was neat, but her exposed skin was covered in band-aids and bandages.
It was Gong Seo-yul.
The former fiancée who, barely two months ago, had been in Choi Tae-seong’s arms cutting me off without hesitation.
With a face that looked like she had suffered severe domestic violence, the moment she spotted me, she fell to her knees.
Thud.
"H-help me… I’ll apologize. I’ll beg like this…! Gongmyeongdang is finished now! Choi Tae-seong thinks of me as nothing but a baby-making machine…! Please!!"
Her pupils were thickly coated with belated regret, misery, and a trace of lingering attachment.
Just yesterday she had been spewing rage unreservedly; what on earth had happened in a single day?
It seemed she had truly been struck by Choi Tae-seong.
Seeing that not an ounce of human compassion welled up, it seemed the old feelings had been completely erased.
How should I deal with this sudden situation?
Ignore her? Verbal abuse? The same violence?
While I was pondering such things.
Suddenly, a soft sensation pressed in from the right.
"Oh my. Isn’t this his former fiancée?"
As if she had been tailing me, a woman who had wrapped her arms around mine stood shoulder-to-shoulder with me, looking down at her.
Toward Gong Seo-yul, who was kneeling and pleading desperately with her hands rubbed together, she spat out cold words of rejection.
"Would you please stop approaching my fiancé? After all, I am more suited to Si-woo-nim than a woman like you."
I could vividly see tears welling in Gong Seo-yul’s wide-open eyes, as if she couldn’t believe it.
The contrast between them was all too stark.
The difference between a luxurious artwork meticulously crafted by a prestigious clan and a cigarette butt rolling on the street.
Her expression, feeling despair beyond misery, sent a chill down my spine.
As expected, rather than a Korean woman who stabs you in the back, a Japanese woman is the answer, huh?
Just by seeing that expression on her face, I felt like I could just go along with the sham engagement.